BERKELEY 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

EARTH 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE 

ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 


A  NEW  EXPLANATION  OF  THE  CAUSE 
OF  THE  ICE  AGES 


BY 
JOSEPH  T.  WHEELER 


PHILADELPHIA  6r»  LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 

1908 


COPTKIQHT,  1908 

BT  JOSEPH  T.  WHEELER 


Published  November8  1908 


Printed  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company 
The  Washington  Square  Press,  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A 


Ws 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

LIBRARY 


PREFACE 


IT  is  purposed  in  this  work  to  show  that  a  vast  amount 
of  evidence  exists  which  proves  that  throughout  the  geolog- 
ical ages  up  to  recent  time  our  earth  was  girt  with  belts  of 
planetesimal  or  gaseous  matter. 

The  nature  of  the  evidence  demonstrates  that  these  belts 
were  potent  factors  in  producing' the  climatic  changes  which 
marked  the  various  geologic  periods.  They  were  the  cause 
of  the  Ice  ages.  Primitive  man  saw  the  last  remnants  of 
these  strange  sights  in  the  sky,  and  the  echo  of  his  thought 
in  the  form  of  mythology  has  sounded  down  through  the 
lapse  of  the  centuries. 

Facts  cannot  be  ignored.  Agassiz  demonstrated  that  the 
till  and  boulder  deposits  scattered  over  the  mantle  rock  of 
northern  Europe  and  North  America  were  the  product  of 
glacier  action,  but  though  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  great 
continental  ice-sheets  was  established,  the  cause  has  remained 
up  to  the  present  date  a  scientific  mystery. 

Now,  in  presenting  the  belted-canopy  or  zonal-ring 
hypothesis  the  cause  or  causes  which  brought  them  into  exist- 
ence is  of  secondary  importance.  The  all-important  matter 
is  to  establish  their  actuality.  Nevertheless,  in  order  to 
present  the  argument  in  a  consecutive  form,  the  author  under- 
takes in  the  opening  chapters  to  show  how  the  belts  could 
have  been  brought  into  existence.  This  portion  of  the  work, 
however,  may  be  considered  as  merely  tentative,  and  if  he 
has  failed  in  this  particular,  it  in  nowise  compromises  the 
main  issue. 

This  is  not  the  first  time  that  an  hypothesis  somewhat 
similar  to  the  one  about  to  be  launched  has  been  subjected  to 


4  PREFACE 

the  critical  eye  of  the  investigator.  In  fact,  there  have  been 
several.  Briefly,  the  history  of  the  growth  of  the  idea  is 
as  follows: 

To  Emanuel  Kant,  who  lived  some  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  belongs  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  modern 
scientist  to  entertain  the  thought  that  this  earth  was  at  one 
time  girt  about  with  rings  or  belts  similar  to  those  which 
now  surround  our  sister  planet,  Saturn.  Kant,  however, 
after  due  deliberation,  cast  the  idea  from  him  as  not  worthy 
of  serious  consideration.1 

There  was  nothing  in  particular  new  about  this  concep- 
tion. The  Chaldeans,  Egyptians,  and  Hebrews  held  that 
this  earth  was  a  flat  disk  canopied  by  a  vaulted  arc  or  water- 
sky,  the  firmament  of  the  Scriptures.  Not  that  the  substance 
of  the  vaulted  arc  was  actually  water,  but  that  this  was  the 
appearance  of  things  to  the  ancients.  Because  the  theory 
of  a  vaulted  firmament  retarded  the  progress  of  astronomy, 
it  was  dropped  entirely.  But  the  question  is,  How  could  such 
a  theory  have  originated  and  become  general  throughout  the 
earth  without  a  prototype  ?  Certainly  it  must  have  had  some 
legitimate  ancestor,  and  the  myths  and  hero-tales  that  have 
come  down  to  us  are  the  vibrations  from  this  far  distant  age. 
The  present  hypothesis  deals  with  the  prehistoric.  Where  it 
comes  into  more  intimate  relationship  with  the  past,  it  is 
because  of  the  echo  which  vibrates  in  and  through  the  lan- 
guage, relics,  literature,  etc.,  of  the  ancients.  The  redis- 
covery of  the  lost  phenomena  has  been  very  gradual. 

Perhaps  in  this  connection  the  theories  of  Ignatius 
Donnelly  are  deserving  of  mention.  In  his  work  entitled, 
"Kagnarok:  The  Age  of  Eire  and  Gravel,"  this  author 
builds  a  superstructure  of  sand  on  a  rock  foundation.  To 
say  that  the  origin  of  drift  and  gravel  is  unknown,  and 
further  to  suggest  that  they  are  the  debris  from  the  wreck 


Kant's  Cosmology,  pp.  129-131. 


PREFACE  5 

of  a  comet,  is  too  radical.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  absurdity 
there  is  a  fascination  that  arises  from  the  residuum  of  truth. 
The  fossil  thought  of  the  by-gone  days  cannot  be  ignored, 
and  Donnelly  has  collected  and  jumbled  together  a  large 
number  of  these  stories  from  the  myths  of  many  people, 
which  plainly  indicate  that  they  were  witnesses  of  some 
strange  sights  in  the  sky.  There  must  have  been  some  com- 
mon source  for  these  tales. 

Again,  a  similar  work  was  published  in  1885,  entitled 
"  Paradise  Found :  The  Cradle  of  the  Human  Race  at  the 
North  Pole."  Its  author  was  William  F.  Warren,  S.T.D., 
LL.D.,  President  of  Boston  University.  Lenormant's  tes- 
timony 2  is  in  the  same  direction,  and  it  goes  to  show  that  the 
Chaldean,  Persian,  and  Indian  traditions  all  point  to  the 
northern  mountains  as  the  original  home  of  the  Caucasian 
race,  therefore  conditions  in  that  region  must  have  been  very 
different  from  those  now  existing.  Comparative  religion 
indicates  the  same  conclusions. 

The  above  works  bring  together  large  masses  of  fact  and 
fable  which  in  some  cases,  it  must  be  admitted,  are  grotesque 
and  visionary.  They  are  mentioned  in  this  place,  however, 
as  they  bear  on  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  present 
hypothesis.  Speculations  such  as  are  introduced  by  these 
authors  must  have  some  foundation.  The  north  seems  to  have 
been  much  warmer  in  the  past.  Indeed,  zonal  atmospheric 
temperature  belts  have  existed  up  to  recent  times.  Briefly, 
the  facts  of  arctic  paleontology  have  induced  the  belief  that 
there  was  a  primitive  Eocene  continent  in  the  highest  lati- 
tudes. The  purely  scientific  aspect  of  the  question  is  pre- 
sented in  Gr.  Hilton  Scribner's  monograph,  "  Where  Did  Life 
Begin  ?  "  Professor  Heer  of  Zurich  and  Baron  Nordensk- 
jold  both  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  J.  Starkie  Gardner 
has  reviewed  the  evidence  and  has  stated  that  this  continuous 


Ancient  History  of  the  East  and  Beginnings  of  History." 


6  PHEFACE 

land  which  once  united  Europe  with  North  America  was 
probably  submerged  by  the  ocean  along  with  northern  Asia 
in  late  glacial  or  post-glacial  time.3 

Since  the  historic  and  mythological  evidence  shows  that 
many  minds  have  had  an  insight  into  some  portion  of  the 
features  connected  with  the  zonal  atmospheric  climatic  belts, 
it  is  only  surprising  that  Emanuel  Kant's  suggestion  was 
not  followed  up  long  ago.  It  is  true  that  geologists  of  the 
old  school,  who  believed  that  the  earth  cooled  from  a  molten 
state,  postulated  some  form  of  cloud-blanket.  Dana  men- 
tions the  Astral  aeon,  as  it  was  called,  when  a  heavy,  vaporous 
envelope  containing  the  future  waters  of  the  globe  or  its  dis- 
sociated elements,  and  other  heavy  vapors  and  gases,  was 
supposed  to  compass  the  earth.4  But  that  was  in  its  early 
history.  Isaac  !N".  Vail  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
advance  the  idea  that  conditions  somewhat  similar  to  these 
could  have  continued  until  recent  time.  His  argument  runs 
as  follows: 

"  Our  earth  once  had  a  Saturn-like  system  of  rings,  which 
in  their  progressive  fall  became  canopies,  such  as  the  planets 
Saturn  and  Jupiter  have  now ;  that  these  canopies,  acting  as 
a  greenhouse  roof,  made  all  the  warm  ages  of  geologic  time, 
and,  gravitating  to  the  polar  regions,  fell  largely  as  snows, 
making  all  the  glacial  epochs  and  all  the  ages  the  earth  ever 
had."  5 

In  the  light  of  modern  science  the  suggestion  of  the  old 
school  geologists,  and  the  further  statement  of  Professor 
Vail,  that  these  rings  were  composed  of  aqueous  and  metallic 
matter  sent  up  from  the  molten  earth,  do  not  bear  scrutiny. 


8  Professor  G.  Frederick  Wright,  "Geology  and  the  Deluge," 
McClure's  Magazine,  June,  1901. 

*  Manual  of  Geology,  4th  ed.,  p.  440. 

5 Isaac  1ST.  Vail,  "The  Waters  Above  the  Firmament,"  "The  Deluge 
and  its  Cause,"  "Eden's  Flaming  Sword,"  etc.,  etc.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 
Captain  R.  Kelso  Carter,  C.E.,  a  friend  of  Professor  Vail,  has  pub- 
lished a  work  on  the  same  subject,  entitled  "Alpha  and  Omega." 


PREFACE  7 

It  has  been  proved  that  Saturn's  rings  would  disrupt  if  they 
were  composed  of  aqueous  solutions,  and,  again,  the  idea 
that  the  earth  has  formed  from  a  fire-mist  or  heated  nebula 
has  given  way  to  Chamberlin's  Planetesimal  Hypothesis. 
Vail  deserves  great  credit,  however,  for  the  vast  amount  of 
mythology  which  he  has  interpreted. 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  some  form  of  belted  canopy 
must  have  existed.  Perhaps  the  next  best  hypothesis  comes 
from  Marsden  Manson.6  His  is  a  scientific  presentation  of 
an  atmospheric  cloud  canopy.  If  to  this  he  had  added  belts 
or  zones  situated  on  the  outer  confines  of  the  earth's  gaseous 
envelope,  the  hypothesis  about  to  be  introduced  might  have 
used  the  same  for  a  foundation,  and  it  would  have  been  neces- 
sary only  to  postulate  that  the  said  belts  were  visible,  and 
that  they  continued  as  a  feature  in  the  heavens  until  recent 
time,  geologically  speaking.  It  is  purposed  to  expand  these 
ideas,  and  further  to  connect  these  belts  with  the  Planetesimal 
Hypothesis. 

A  brief  knowledge  of  the  ground  covered  by  this  last 
hypothesis  is  essential  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  idea 
that  zonal  belts  once  girt  our  planet,  and  the  following  com- 
parison of  the  nebular  and  plantesimal  hypotheses  will 
supply  that  need. 

"  The  old  hypothesis  assumes  the  existence  of  a  mass  of 
incandescent  vapor,  with  or  without  a  nucleus,  which  by  con- 
densation and  rotation  was  differentiated  into  successive 
rings ;  the  latter  being  eventually  gathered  up  into  the  planets 
while  still  retaining  intense  heat.  From  this  postulate  there 
necessarily  follows  the  conception  of  a  cooling  earth;  and 
hypogeic  geology  has  been  founded  on  the  idea  of  crustal 
solidification  on  a  molten  globe.  The  new  hypothesis  holds 
that  the  disseminated  planet-forming  matter  had  lost  its  heat 


e  See   articles    in    the    American    Geologist;    also    pamphlet,    "  The 
Evolution  of  Climates.'* 


8  PREFACE 

while  yet  existing  in  the  loose  form,  as  rings  or  zones  or  wisps 
of  the  parent  nebula,  and  that  the  globular  planets  were 
formed  by  the  slow  accretion  or  infalling  of  cold,  discrete 
bodies  or  particles  ('  planetesimals  ')."  7 

The  zonal  belt  hypothesis  simply  takes  hold  where  the 
above  lets  go.  Since  Saturn  still  has  rings  of  infalling  par- 
ticles there  is  nothing  startling  or  improbable  in  the  assump- 
tion that  our  earth  had  the  same,  up  to  the  close  of  the  last 
Ice  age. 


'Extract  from  the  paper  of  Herman  Leroy  Fairchild,  read  at  the 
St.  Louis  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  January  1, 
1904,  published  in  the  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxxiii,  No.  2,  by 
courtesy  of  the  Council. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE   HYPOTHESIS 11 

II.  ATMOSPHERIC    BELTS 17 

III.  PLANETESIMAL   RINGS 30 

IV.  PHYSICAL    EFFECTS — GEOLOGIC 39 

V.  PHYSICAL    EFFECTS — BIOLOGIC 52 

VI.  DENSITY    OF    THE    ATMOSPHERE    AND    OTHER    PHYSICAL 

PHENOMENA  , 65 

VII.  VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE 75 

VIII.  EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION 89 

IX.  CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES 101 

X.  SYMPATHETIC    FEATURES 117 

XI.   PvECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE 124 

XII.  FOSSIL   THOUGHT 143 

XIII.  GENESIS    , 155 

XIV.  HINDU   MYTHS 174 

XV.  BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS 196 

XVI.  EGYPTIAN    MYTHS 219 

XVII.  MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME 254 

XVIII.  HERCULES    276 

XIX.  PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION   297 

XX.  MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS   308 

XXI.  RUSSIAN  MYTHS  332 

XXII.  SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  358 

INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 387 

INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS  .  .391 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  HYPOTHESIS 

THE  narrowness  of  the  range  to  which  temperatures  are 
confined  in  order  to  allow  life  to  continue  on  the  earth  has 
prevailed  since  the  beginning  of  organic  existence.  This  fact 
has  to  be  considered  by  all  who  would  investigate  the  genesis 
of  things  mundane.  The  geologists  and  biologists  never  lose 
sight  of  it,  but  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  their  requirements 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  sun's  energy.  The  best  reply 
seems  to  be  that  radiant  energy  is  probably  the  reflex  action 
of  the  perpetual  motion  of  the  ether.  This  means  that  there 
is  no  cause  left  for  controversy  between  the  mathematicians 
on  the  one  side  and  the  aforementioned  geologists  and  biolo- 
gists on  the  other.  Whether  this  explanation  be  accepted  or 
not,  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  this  long  time  period  of 
comparative  slight  temperature  fluctuation  remains. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  supply  of  radiant  energy  is  con- 
stant, then  a  factor  must  be  discovered  that  from  time  to 
time  has  modified  the  amount  of  energy  received,  a  factor 
capable  of  punctuating  the  geological  eras.  On  the  other 
hand,  if,  as  the  advocates  of  the  shrinkage  hypothesis  gen- 
erally contend,  the  sun  in  past  ages  has  been  giving  out  a 
greater  flow  of  energy,  then  this  same  factor  is  needed  in 
order  to  mitigate  the  results.  Again,  if  the  gravitational 
heat  of  the  earth,  due  to  the  consolidation  of  the  original 
planetesimal  structure  has  entered  into  the  question  of  the 
maintenance  of  this  narrowness  in  the  range  of  temperature, 
then  once  more  this  factor  will  be  very  useful,  as  it  is  neces- 
sary to  conserve  this  dissipation. 

The  factor  that  best  answers  the  foregoing  requirements 
is  a  protecting  canopy,  and  such  a  one  is  here  postulated — 
a  canopy  floating  high  above  the  present  cloud-belt,  and 

11 


12  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

probably  outside  the  existing  atmosphere.  The  evidence 
connected  with  this  hypothesis  will  be  presented  in  the  suc- 
ceeding chapters.  It  is  now  purposed  to  consider  the  nature 
of  the  structure  and  the  possible  source  of  its  origin. 

The  evidence  will  show  that  this  atmospheric  protector 
existed  until  recent  time,  and  that  primitive  man  lived  under 
its  beneficent  roof.  Furthermore,  it  was  visible  to  him,  for 
he  has  recorded  the  fact  on  his  monuments,  and  many  of  the 
roots  from  which  his  archaic  languages  are  derived  have 
their  origin  in  sky  scenes.  He  worshipped  the  phenomena 
which  he  saw,  making  gods  and  devils  of  the  various  features, 
handing  down  to  us  the  substance  of  his  impressions  in  that 
form  of  mythology  which  portrays  the  nature  myth. 

Since  the  sky-features  were  visible,  it  proves  that  a  canopy 
of  uniform  texture  spreading  evenly  over  the  whole  earth 
could  not  have  fulfilled  the  requirements.  Such  a  blanket 
has  been  postulated  by  many  scientists. 

Tyndall  thus  depicts  the  influence  of  such  an  atmospheric 
appendage  on  planetary  temperature.  He  says:  "Let  us 
now  consider  for  a  moment  the  effect  upon  the  earth's  tem- 
perature of  a  shell  of  olefiant  gas,  surrounding  our  planet  at 
a  little  distance  above  its  surface.  The  gas  would  be  trans- 
parent to  the  solar  rays,  allowing  them,  without  sensible 
hindrance,  to  reach  the  earth.  Here,  however,  the  luminous 
heat  of  the  sun  would  be  converted  into  non-luminous  terres- 
trial heat;  at  least  26  per  cent,  of  this  heat  would  be  inter- 
cepted by  a  layer  of  gas  one  inch  thick,  and  in  great  part 
returned  to  the  earth.  Under  such  a  canopy,  trifling  as  it 
may  appear,  and  perfectly  transparent  to  the  eye,  the  earth's 
surface  would  be  maintained  at  a  stifling  temperature. 

"  A  few  years  ago  a  work  possessing  great  charms  of  style 
and  ingenuity  of  reasoning  was  written  to  prove  that  the 
more  distant  planets  of  our  system  are  uninhabitable.  Apply- 
ing the  law  of  inverse  squares  to  their  distances  from  the 
sun,  the  diminution  of  temperature  was  found  to  be  so  great 


THE  HYPOTHESIS  13 

as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  human  life  in  the  more 
remote  members  of  the  solar  system.  But  in  those  calcula- 
tions the  influence  of  an  atmospheric  envelope  was  over- 
looked, and  this  omission  vitiated  the  entire  argument.  An 
atmosphere  may  act  the  part  of  a  barb  to  the  solar  rays,  per- 
mitting them  to  reach  the  earth,  but  preventing  their  escape. 
A  layer  of  air  two  inches  in  thickness,  saturated  with  the 
vapor  of  sulphuric  ether,  would  offer  very  little  resistance 
to  the  passage  of  the  solar  rays,  but  I  find  that  it  would  cut 
off  fully  35  per  cent,  of  the  planetary  radiation.  It  would 
require  no  inordinate  thickening  of  the  layer  of  vapor  to 
double  this  absorption ;  and  it  is  perfectly  evident  that,  with 
a  protecting  envelope  of  this  kind,  permitting  the  heat  to 
enter  but  preventing  its  escape,  a  comfortable  temperature 
might  be  obtained  on  the  surface  of  the  most  distant  planet."  l 

As  stated  above,  the  envelope  of  uniform  texture  does  not 
fulfil  the  requirements  which  the  evidence  about  to  be  pro- 
duced demands.  If  visible  at  all,  the  monotony  of  its  same- 
ness would  have  failed  to  arouse  the  religious  superstitions 
of  early  man,  hence  they  would  have  left  no  records  of  it. 
Again,  the  continuance  of  arctic  and  tropic  life  shows  that 
climate  was  differentiated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  preclude 
uniformity. 

In  explanation  of  the  vagaries  of  climate  which  have 
existed  in  the  past,  two  alternatives  now  present  themselves. 
The  one  is  Chamberlin's  hypothesis,  that  the  amount  of 
carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere  itself  is  responsible  for  the 
physical  phenomena.  The  other  is  that  a  fractured  shell  or 
envelope  composed  of  rings  or  belts  floated  above  or  on  the 
outer  bounds  of  the  atmosphere.  This  latter  hypothesis  not 
only  accounts  for  the  physical  phenomena,  but  it  also  explains 
the  origin  of  the  myths  we  have  so  often  referred  to. 

The  one  hypothesis  may  be  as  complicated  as  the  other. 
Chamberlin's  requires  a  fine  adjustment  between  the  ocean 


Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion,"  6th  ed.,  pp.  417-418. 


14  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

and  the  atmosphere.  Thus  the  originator  of  the  hypothesis 
quotes  Schloesing's  views  as  follows :  "  The  carbon  dioxide 
of  the  atmosphere  is  in  equilibrium,  not  only  with  the  free 
carbon  dioxide  absorbed  in  the  sea  water,  but,  through  dis- 
sociation, with  the  second  equivalent  of  carbon  dioxide  in 
the  oceanic  bicarbonates.  The  sum-total  of  such  free  and 
loosely  combined  carbon  dioxide  available  at  present  as  a 
possible  supply  for  the  atmosphere  may  be  some  twenty-five 
times  the  present  atmospheric  content.  Schloesing  held  that 
any  depletion  of  the  atmospheric  content  would  be  followed 
by  emanation  from  the  ocean,  and  any  excess  acquired  by  the 
atmosphere  would  be  followed  by  oceanic  absorption,  and 
hence  great  changes  in  the  atmospheric  content  would  only 
be  brought  about  by  reducing  or  increasing  the  large  sum- 
total  of  atmospheric  and  oceanic  supply."  2 

RTow,  the  diffusion  of  gases  in  water  is  a  slow  process, 
and  it  would  seem  that  the  supply  of  carbon  dioxide  which 
the  ocean  would  yield  to  the  atmosphere  might  be  far  too 
slow  to  offset  the  consumption  of  the  same  under  certain 
chemic  geologic  conditions.  This  depletion,  according  to 
Chamberlin's  hypothesis,  would  bring  about  an  ice  age,  the 
location  of  the  main  centres  of  glaciation  being  determined 
by  the  path  of  cyclonic  storms.  So  far  all  seems  well,  but, 
unfortunately  for  the  hypothesis,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for 
the  return  to  normal  conditions.  The  restocking  of  the 
atmospheric  supply  from  the  ocean  would  be  very  slow,  and 
a  question  arises  as  to  whether  the  evidence  does  not  indicate 
a  more  rapid  recession,  comparatively  speaking. 

Again,  if  the  cold  of  the  ice  ages  was  due  to  depletion, 
then  the  warmth  of  the  Carboniferous  age  was  due  to  excess. 
This  amount  could  not  have  exceeded  a  percentage  that  would 
allow  of  the  continuance  of  animal  life.  "  According  to 
Berzelius,  common  air  containing  1/20  of  its  volume  of 


*  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  xiv,  No.  5,  p.  367. 


THE  HYPOTHESIS  15 

carbon  dioxide  can  be  breathed  without  producing  any  serious 
effects ;  but  from  Angus  Smith's  later  experiments  it  appears 
that  when  air  contains  only  0.20  per  cent,  by  volume  of  this 
gas,  its  effect  in  lowering  the  action  of  the  pulse  is  rendered 
evident  after  the  respiration  has  continued  for  about  an  hour. 
It  seems,  therefore,  premature  to  say  that  the  smallest 
increase  of  the  atmospheric  carbonic  acid  may  not  be  pro- 
ductive of  hurtful  results."  3 

But  let  us  examine  one  of  the  statements  of  the  author 
himself.  He  says :  "  If  we  consider  what  a  possible  atmos- 
phere and  ocean  richer  in  carbon  dioxide  might  do,  it  seems 
idle  to  look  to  the  atmosphere  as  even  a  possible  competent 
reservoir,  consistently  with  the  life  that  existed;  for  the 
carbon  dioxide  of  the  present  atmosphere,  if  converted  into 
limestone,  would  form  a  layer  about  one-thirtieth  of  an  inch 
thick  only,  over  the  globe.  To  form  a  layer  one  foot  thick  it 
would  have  to  be  increased  360  fold,  which  would  surely 
imperil  active,  air-breathing  life,  unless  it  were  different 
from  similar  present  life."  4 

Dropping  this  line  of  argument  and  approaching  it  from 
another  standpoint,  it  seems  rash  to  postulate  a  colder  climate 
as  a  requisite  to  an  ice  age.  It  takes  heat  to  evaporate  water 
in  order  to  furnish  the  supply  of  snow.  Belts  of  carbon 
dioxide  hanging  above  the  atmosphere  would  have  caused 
remarkable  climatic  contrasts,  and  as  they  would  not  neces- 
sarily have  changed  the  atmospheric  content,  animal  life 
would  not  have  suffered.  The  saturated  warm  air  drifting 
from  beneath  such  a  canopy  would  have  been  quickly  con- 
gealed into  snow  and  ice  by  the  cold  air  in  the  open  zones. 
Intense  cold  near  the  poles  during  the  Ice  age  is  at  variance 
with  the  recorded  facts. 

Again  reverting  to  Chamberlin's  hypothesis,  we  find  that 
it  is  based  on  the  views  of  Arrhenius  regarding  the  effects 

•Roscoe    and    Schorlemmer,    "Treatise    on    Chemistry,"    vol.    i,    p. 
625;  Angus  Smith,  "Air  and  Rain,"  p.  209. 

*Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  Geo.,  vol.  ii,  p.  661. 


16  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

on  the  climate  of  small  changes  in  the  amount  of  carbon 
dioxide  in  the  air.  Now,  his  views  have  been  contested  by 
Angstrom  and  Very,  and  are  not  accepted  by  Hann.  Thus, 
since  the  physicists  disagree,  it  may  be  that  the  foundation 
is  itself  insecure. 

The  alternate  hypothesis  which  postulates  that  belts  or 
rings  environed  the  earth  may  be  presented  in  two  forms,  or 
in  a  combination  of  the  two.  The  first  assumes  that  their 
origin  was  terrestrial,  the  second  that  it  was  planetesimal. 
The  one  is  atmospheric,  the  other  rises  high  above  it.  The 
first  fulfils  all  requirements,  but  a  possible  difficulty  exists 
in  connection  with  the  flotation  stability  of  the  belts.  The 
density  of  carbon  dioxide  compared  to  air  is  1.524,  therefore 
it  does  not  seem  likely  that  this  substance  entered  into  their 
composition.  However,  as  there  are  numerous  other  lighter 
gases  which  might  have  answered  the  purpose,  this  objection 
is  not  serious.  Centrifugal  force  undoubtedly  played  a  con- 
spicuous part,  as  it  was  this  whirling  energy  that  broke  the 
canopy  up  into  belts.  If  the  rings  had  their  origin  beyond 
the  atmosphere,  then  the  forces  which  control  Saturn's  system 
must  have  sustained  ours.  In  other  words,  we  are  presenting 
two  diametrically  opposed  ideas,  the  one  working  outward 
and  the  other  inward.  It  may  be  true  that  both  forms  of 
the  hypothesis  are  correct.  There  may  have  been  a  system 
of  rings  composed  of  planetesimal  accretions  received  from 
outer  space,  and  there  may  also  have  been  belts  on  the  outer 
confines  of  the  atmosphere,  somewhat  similar  to  the  belts  now 
visible  on  Jupiter.  These  belts  may  have  had  a  volcanic 
origin,  or,  again,  they  may  have  been  derived  from  the  rings, 
for  undoubtedly  in  falling  these  became  canopies,  their 
substance  drifting  off  in  the  direction  of  the  poles,  where 
centrifugal  force  was  at  a  minimum.  It  is  a  significant 
fact  that  our  sister  planets  present  us  with  an  object  lesson, 
and  that  we  do  not  comprehend  the  exact  working  of  the, 
laws  involved. 


CHAPTER  II 

ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS 

ACCORDING  to  the  planetesimal  hypothesis  of  the  earth's 
origin,  the  hydrosphere  and  atmosphere  were  acquired 
through  gravitational  action  driving  out  the  internal  gases. 
This  process  has  gone  on  from  the  initial  stages  to  the  present 
time.  Every  volcanic  eruption  witnesses  large  additions, 
that  can  be  measured,  as  in  the  case  of  explosive  vents  like 
that  of  Mount  Pelee,  by  the  standard  of  cubic  miles.1 

The  principal  gaseous  product  excluded  by  volcanoes  are 
water-vapor,  carbon  dioxide,  hydrocarbons,  hydrogen,  oxygen, 
and  nitrogen.  To  these  may  be  added  chlorine,  sulphur,  and 
many  other  temporary  gases,  together  with  certain  other 
light  and  volatile  material.  Even  at  the  present  day  enor- 
mous quantities  of  these  products  are  shot  forth  into  very 
high  altitudes.  Witness  the  eruption  of  Krakatoa,  the  pow- 
dery dust  from  which  was  carried  up  at  least  seventeen  miles, 
and  the  gaseous  ejections  may  have  reached  still  more  amaz- 
ing heights.  2  Volcanic  action  in  the  past  has  been  more 
active  than  at  present.3  In  the  case  of  our  sun,  protuber- 


1  James  Furman  Kemp,  "Economic  Geology,"  Dec.-Jan.,  vol.  i, 
No.  3,  pp.  219-220,  229. 

2 Joseph  Le  Conte,  "Elements  of  Geology,"  5th  ed.,  revised  by  Her- 
man Le  Roy  Fairchild,  p.  91. 

'Archibald  Geikie  describes  the  following  basalt-plain  visited  on 
his  return  trip  from  the  Yellowstone,  which  illustrates  this  greater 
activity  of  the  past.  He  says:  "The  last  section  of  our  ride  proved 
to  be  in  a  geological  sense  one  of  the  most  interesting  parts  of  the 
whole  journey.  We  found  that  the  older  trachytic  lavas  of  the  hills 
had  been  deeply  trenched  by  lateral  valleys,  and  that  all  these  valleys 
had  a  floor  of  the  black  basalt  that  had  been  poured  out  as  the  last 
of  the  molten  materials  from  the  now  extinct  volcanoes.  There  were 
no  visible  cones  or  vents  from  which  these  floods  of  basalt  could  have 
«  17 


18  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

ances  are  shot  out  to  heights  of  many  thousands  of  miles. 
"  The  expansive  potency  of  this  prodigious  elasticity," 
say  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  "  is  held  in  restraint 
by  the  equally  prodigious  power  of  the  sun's  gravity." 
As  it  is,  some  of  these  outshoots  closely  approach  the 
controlling  limit  of  the  sun's  gravity.4  In  the  case  of  our 
moon,  the  expansive  potency  of  its  volcanoes  has  been  too 
great  to  be  controlled  by  its  feeble  gravity,  hence  the  moon 
lacks  an  atmosphere.  Now,  gravity  exerts  on  our  own  planet 
a  force  much  less  than  that  of  the  sun,  and  much  greater 
than  that  of  the  moon.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  we  may 
have  lost  a  part  of  our  atmosphere,  therefore  it  may  be  log- 
ically surmised  that  more  than  one  of  our  outer  gaseous  shells 
or  envelopes  in  past  time  escaped. 

The  joint  authors  above  cited  say  in  this  connection  that 
"  the  mean  velocity  of  hydrogen  is  more  than  four  times  that 


proceeded.  We  rode  for  hours  by  the  margin  of  a  vast  plain  of  basalt, 
stretching  southward  and  westward  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  plain  had  been  once  a  great  lake  or  sea  of  molten 
rock  which  surged  along  the  base  of  the  hills,  entering  every  valley 
and  leaving  there  a  solid  floor  of  bare  black  stone.  We  camped  on 
this  basalt  plain,  near  some  springs  of  clear  cold  water  which  rise 
close  to  its  edge.  Wandering  over  the  bare  hummocks  of  rock,  on  many 
of  which  not  a  vestige  of  vegetation  had  yet  taken  root,  I  realized  with 
vividness  the  truth  of  an  assertion  made  first  by  Richthofen,  but  very 
generally  neglected  by  geologists,  that  our  modern  volcanoes,  such  as 
Vesuvius  or  Etna,  present  us  with  by  no  means  the  grandest  type  of 
volcanic  action,  but  rather  belong  to  a  time  of  failing  activity.  There 
have  been  periods  of  tremendous  volcanic  energy,  when,  instead  of 
escaping  from  a  local  vent,  like  a  Vesuvian  cone,  the  lava  has  found 
its  way  to  the  surface  by  innumerable  fissures  opened  for  it  in  the 
solid  crust  of  the  globe  over  thousands  of  square  miles.  I  felt  that  the 
structure  of  this  and  the  other  volcanic  plains  of  the  Far  West  furnish 
the  true  key  to  the  history  of  the  basaltic  plateaux  of  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  which  had  been  an  enigma  to  me  for  many  years."  ("Geolog- 
ical Sketches  at  Home  and  Abroad,"  pp.  237-238.)  To  this  we  may 
add  that  the  explosive  type  of  volcanic  eruption  was  also  greater  in 
the  past  than  at  present. 

*  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  Geo.,  vol.  ii,  p.  55. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  19 

of  oxygen,  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  it  would  be  at  least 
four  times  as  liable  to  escape  from  the  control  of  the  earth."  6 

If  these  belts,  composed  of  gases  lighter  than  air,  were 
working  outwards,  all  that  is  required  of  them  is  that  they 
remained  under  gravitational  control  long  enough  to  produce 
the  pronounced  climatic  effects  known  to  biology  and  to 
geology. 

They  may  have  been  invisible  to  the  eye  and  yet  have 
fulfilled  all  the  requirements  of  the  hero-tales  left  us  by  early 
man,  for,  although  invisible  themselves,  they  would  have 
caused  certain  phenomena  to  be  introduced  into  th*,  atmos- 
phere beneath  which  would  have  been  visible,  and  this  sec- 
ondary class  of  phenomena  would  have  given  birth  to  the 
myths. 

The  secondary  phenomena  referred  to  may  be  explained 
as  follows:  When  a  column  of  air  saturated  with  aqueous 
vapor  ascends  from  the  earth  it  is  invisible  until  radiation  or 
the  meeting  with  cooler  currents  condenses  it.  Thus  cumuli 
are  the  heads  of  vaporous  columns  which  are  precipitated  as 
soon  as  they  reach  a  certain  elevation.6  ]STow,  gaseous  belts 
floating  on  the  outer  confines  of  the  atmosphere  would 
have  prevented  this  radiation.  They  would  have  intro- 
duced greenhouse  conditions,  admitting  the  luminous  heat, 
and  preventing  the  escape  of  the  dark  heat.  Aqueous 
vapor  is  lighter  than  air,  and  the  only  thing  that  stops  its 
upward  career  is  this  condensation.  Under  the  influence 
of  such  belts  as  are  postulated,  undoubtedly  the  present 
storm  belt  would  have  been  surmounted  by  one  immeasurably 
higher,  and  this  stupendous  belt  of  cloud  being  visible  in- 
spired the  ancients  to  worship  and  to  build  monuments  that 
have  along  with  the  Scriptures  perpetuated  the  memory  of 
the  crooked  flying  serpent. 


5  Ibid,  p.  98. 

"Tyndall,  "Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion,"  6th  ed.,  p.  384. 


20  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  By  his  spirit  he  hath  garnished  the  heavens ;  his  hand 
hath  formed  the  crooked  serpent."  7  The  serpent  portrayed 
girded  the  sky  in  an  east  and  west  direction.  The  storm- 
belt,  postulated,  not  only  floated  at  great  heights,  but  also 
had  its  boundaries  established  by  the  overruling  zonal  extra- 
atmosphaBra  belts,  and  it  follows  that  it  could  not  extend 
further  north,  or  further  south,  than  these  boundaries. 

The  greenhouse  conditions  are  thus  described  by  Le 
Conte :  "  It  seems  almost  certain  that  during  the  whole 
recorded  history  of  the  earth,  i.e.,  during  the  time  it  has 
been  inhabited  by  organisms,  the  surface-temperature  of  the 
earth  has  been  almost  wholly  due  to  external  causes.  Now, 
the  composition  of  the  atmosphere  is  an  external  cause,  which 
greatly  affects  the  surface-temperature,  but  which  has  hith- 
erto been  almost  wholly  neglected.  The  thorough  explana- 
tion of  this  point  will  require  some  discussion  of  the  proper- 
ties of  transparent  media  in  relation  to  light  and  heat. 

"  Many  bodies  which  are  transparent  to  light  are  opaque 
to  heat.  Such  bodies,  however,  will  freely  transmit  heat,  if 
the  heat  be  accompanied  with  intense  light.  It  is  as  if  the 
light  carried  the  heat  through  with  it.  Heat  thus  associated 
with  light  is  sometimes  called  light  heat,  while  that  which 
is  not  thus  associated  is  called  dark  heat.  Now,  the  bodies 
spoken  of  are  transparent  to  light  heat,  but  opaque  to  dark 
heat.  Glass  is  such  a  body.  If  a  pane  of  glass  be  held 
between  the  face  and  the  sun,,  the  heat  passes  freely  and 
burns  the  face,  but  the  same  pane  would  act  as  a  partial 
screen  before  a  fire,  and  as  a  perfect  screen  before  a  hot,  but 
not  incandescent,  cannon-ball. 

"  It  is  in  this  way  we  explain  the  fact  that  a  glass  green- 
house, even  in  the  coldest  sunshiny  winter's  day,  becomes 
insupportably  warm  if  shut  up.  The  sunlight  and  heat  pass 
freely  through  the  glass  and  heat  the  ground,  the  benches, 


TJob  xxvi:   13. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  31 

the  flower-pots ;  but  the  light-heat  thereby  becomes  converted 
into  dark  heat,  and  thus  is  imprisoned  within.  Now,  the 
earth  and  its  atmosphere  are  such  a  greenhouse.  The  light- 
heat  passes  readily  through,  warms  the  ground,  changes  into 
dark  heat,  and  is  in  a  measure  imprisoned  by  the  partial 
opacity  of  the  atmosphere  to  this  kind  of  heat.  The  atmos- 
phere is  a  kind  of  blanket  put  about  the  earth  to  keep  it 
warm.  So  much  has  long  been  recognized.  But  Tyndall  has 
shown  that  the  property  of  opacity  to  dark  heat  in  the  case 
of  the  atmosphere  is  due  wholly  to  the  small  quantity  of 
carbonic  acid  and  aqueous  vapor  present;  that  oxygen  and 
nitrogen  are  transparent  to  dark  heat,  and,  therefore,  if  the 
atmosphere  consisted  only  of  those  two  gases,  it  would  not  be 
heated  by  radiation  from  the  earth,  and  the  ground  would 
lose  all  its  heat  by  radiation  during  the  night,  and  become 
intensely  cold,  like  space.  In  other  words,  the  blanket  put 
about  the  earth  to  keep  it  warm  is  woven  of  carbonic  acid  and 
aqueous  vapor."  8 

The  matter  resolves  itself  into  the  question,  What  gases 
of  light  density  would  exert  a  similar  influence?  Langley 
says :  "  The  temperature  of  this  planet,  and  with  it  the 
existence  not  only  of  the  human  race  but  of  all  organized 
life  on  the  globe,  appears,  in  the  light  of  the  conclusions 
reached  by  the  Mount  Whitney  expedition,  to  depend  far 
less  on  the  direct  solar  heat  than  on  the  hitherto  too  little 
regarded  quality  of  selective  absorption  in  our  atmosphere."  9 

Geology  and  biology  unveil  the  fact  that  in  the  past  the 
earth  has  been  at  times  a  vast  orchard-house  blooming  with  a 
luxuriant  vegetation  that  has  even  extended  to  the  polar 
regions. 

"  We  know  by  experiment,"  remarks  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
"  that  plants  which  are  natives  of  the  tropics  can  dispense 


8Geo.,  5th  ed.,  revised  by  Fairchild,  pp.  395-396. 
"George  F.  Barker,  "Physics,"  4th  ed.,  p.  393. 


22  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

more  easily  with  the  bright  light  of  those  countries  than  with 
the  heat  of  the  same.  Few  palms  can  live  in  our  temperate 
latitudes  without  protection  from  the  cold;  but  when  placed 
in  hot-houses  they  grow  luxuriantly,  even  under  a  cloudy 
sky  and  where  much  light  is  intercepted  by  the  glass  and 
framework.  At  St.  Petersburg,  in  lat.  60°  1ST.,  many  tropical 
plants  have  been  successfully  cultivated  in  hot-houses, 
although  there  they  must  exchange  the  perpetual  equinox  of 
their  native  regions  for  days  and  nights  which  are  alternately 
protracted  to  nineteen  hours  and  shortened  to  five.  How 
much  farther  towards  the  pole  even  the  existing  species  might 
continue  to  live,  provided  a  due  quantity  of  heat  and  moisture 
were  supplied,  has  not  yet  been  determined ;  but  St.  Peters- 
burg is  probably  not  the  utmost  limit,  and  we  should  expect 
that  in  lat.  65°  at  least,  where  they  would  never  remain 
twenty-four  hours  without  enjoying  the  sun's  light,  they  might 
still  exist."  10 

Greenhouse  conditions  have  existed  in  the  past  all  the 
way  up  to  the  pole,  thus  all  these  facts  go  to  show  that  a 
canopy  exerting  a  selective  absorption  must  have  existed. 
Pure  hydrogen,  though  light  enough  to  float  above  the  atmos- 
phere, was  not  the  material  out  of  which  this  blanket  was 
made,  for  its  atoms,  apparently,  are  quite  incompetent  to 
stop  the  calorific  waves.  But  there  are  other  gases,  such  as 
argon,  krypton,  neon,  helium,  and  their  combinations,  which 
have  to  be  considered.  Some  of  the  hydrocarbons  likewise, 
which  also  are  products  of  vulcanism,  and  which  have  a  rela- 
tively high  power  of  absorption,  cannot  be  ignored. 

The  radiation-enigmas  of  the  boreal  auroras  have  recently 
been  identified  with  the  spectra  of  some  of  the  new  atmos- 
pheric gases.  This  indicates  that  remnants  of  the  old  canopy 
still  exist.  This  phenomenon  often  takes  the  form  of  an  arc 
from  which  stream  curtains  of  light. 


Principles  of  Geology,"  vol.  i,  llth  ed.,  p.  226. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  23 

There  is  a  possibility  that  these  rarefied  belts  may  have 
been  upheld  by  electrical  expulsion  originating  in  the  earth, 
in  which  case  they  may  have  been  heavier  than  air.  Centrif- 
ugal force  also  was  a  very  powerful  factor,  the  rate  of  gyra- 
tion being  the  same  or  slightly  slower  than  the  earth. 

One  matter  is  certain,  the  gaseous  envelope  could  not 
have  been  of  uniform  texture.  The  physical  evidence  as 
recorded  by  the  zonal  climatic  temperatures  and  the  records 
of  primitive  man  unite  against  such  a  supposition.  In  other 
words,  it  was  broken  up  into  belts  or  rings,  and,  furthermore, 
the  laws  of  mathematics,  mechanics,  and  physics  demand  that 
it  should  be. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  electricity  alone  would  have  caused 
such  a  break  up.  Biela's  comet  separated  into  two  parts, 
mutually  affecting  each  other.11  Though  this  comparison 
may  have  but  little  value,  it  does,  however,  introduce  a  pos- 
sible factor.  Yet  why  deal  with  uncertainties,  since  this 
feature  is  so  clearly  proved  ? 

Thus  it  is  plain  to  all  that  the  power  of  gravity  being 
at  least  partially  neutralized  by  centrifugal  tendency  due  to 
axial  speed,  allowed  the  latter  to  gain  progressively  in  lift- 
ing capacity  from  the  poles,  where  that  speed  had  a  zero 
value,  to  the  equator,  where  it  attained  the  maximum.  Here, 
then,  the  gaseous  materials  of  the  rotating  body  were  vir- 
tually lighter  than  elsewhere,  and  consequently  retreated 
farther  from  the  earth.  ~Not  only  did  this  introduce  strains 
into  the  canopy  itself,  which  probably  disrupted  it,  but  it 
also  caused  an  unevenness  in  the  height  to  which  the  ascend- 
ing columns  of  aqueous  vapor  could  rise.  This  is  all  impor- 
tant, for  since  the  canopy  quite  probably  was  invisible,  it 
makes  little  difference  whether  it  was  ruptured  or  not.  The 
fact  to  grasp  is  that  the  secondary  cloud  uplift  was  visible, 


"Agnes  M.  Clerke,  "History  of  Astronomy  During  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  3d  ed.,  p.  120. 


24  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

and  this,  owing  to  these  physical  conditions,  must  have  been 
divided  into  serpent-like  belts. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  because  of  the  use  of  the  word 
"  rupture  "  that  the  upper  belt  which  we  are  considering  was 
of  one  piece.  Such  a  structure  is  impossible.  Our  concep- 
tion makes  every  individual  particle  independent,  but  liberty 
is  not  license,  and  when  these  individuals  transgressed  the 
law  of  their  station  they  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
ruptured  from  it. 

Even  under  existing  conditions  signs  are  not  wanting  that 
point  to  the  existence  of  belts  in  the  heights  of  our  atmos- 
phere. Twenty  miles  above  the  earth's  surface  there  is  a 
stupendous  wind  blowing  which  completes  its  circuit  in  about 
thirteen  days.  The  great  explosion  of  Krakatoa,  which  took 
place  August  27,  1883,  revealed  to  us  its  existence.  Through 
the  medium  of  the  dust  from  this  eruption  it  was  seen  that 
this  mighty  wind  circled  around  the  earth  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Equator.  Afterwards  the  dust  dissipated  as  a  canopy 
drifting  towards  the  poles.  Those  who  saw  the  brilliant  sun- 
sets tinged  by  these  particles  will  never  forget  them.  Kraka- 
toa certainly  thundered  forth  its  voice  as  a  witness  to  this 
hypothesis.12 

This  is  not  the  only  instance  in  recent  time  when  the  dust 
from  volcanoes  and  from  arid  regions  has  revealed  these 
upper  air-currents.  The  following  are  given  as  illustrations : 
"  This  phenomenon  is  frequent  on  the  northwest  of  Africa, 
about  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  in  the  Mediterranean,  and 
over  the  bordering  countries.  A  microscopic  examination  of 
this  dust  by  Ehrenberg  led  him  to  the  belief  that  it  contains 
numerous  diatoms  of  South  American  species;  and  he  in- 
ferred that  a  dust-cloud  must  be  swimming  in  the  atmos- 
phere, carried  forward  by  continuous  currents  of  air  in  the 


12  James  D.  Dana,  "  Manual  of  Geo.,"  4th  ed.,  pp.  163,  291.    Archibald 
Geikie,  Geo.,  3d  ed.,  pp.  214,  338. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  25 

region  of  the  trade-winds  and  anti-trades,  but  suffering  par- 
tial and  periodical  deviations.  But  much  of  the  dust  seems 
to  come  from  the  sandy  plains  and  desiccated  pools  of  the 
north  of  Africa.  Daubree  recognized  in  1865  some  of  the 
Sahara  sand  which  fell  in  the  Canary  Islands.  On  the  coast 
of  Italy  a  film  of  sandy  clay  identical  with  that  from  parts 
of  the  Libyan  desert  is  occasionally  found  on  windows  after 
rain.  In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  an  area  of  northern 
Italy,  estimated  at  about  200  square  leagues,  was  covered 
with  a  layer  of  dust  which  in  some  places  reached  a  depth 
of  one  inch.  In  1846  the  Sahara  dust  reached  Lyons,  and 
it  is  said  to  have  been  since  detected  as  far  as  Boulogne-sur- 
Mer.  Should  the  travelling  dust  encounter  a  cooler  tempera- 
ture, it  may  be  brought  to  the  ground  by  snow,  as  has  hap- 
pened in  the  north  of  Italy,  and  more  notably  in  the  east  and 
southeast  of  Kussia,  where  the  snows  are  sometimes  rendered 
dirty  by  the  dust  raised  by  winds  on  the  Caspian  steppes.  It 
is  easy  to  see  how  widespread  deposits  of  dust  may  arise, 
mingled  with  the  soil  of  the  land  and  with  the  silt  and  sand 
of  lakes,  rivers,  or  the  sea ;  and  how  the  minuter  organisms 
of  tropical  regions  may  thus  come  to  be  preserved  in  the  same 
formations  with  the  terrestrial  or  marine  organisms  of  tem- 
perate latitudes."  13 

This  kind  of  evidence  may  be  somewhat  tiresome,  but  it 
is  very  suggestive,  for  since  dust  can  be  suspended  in  the 
atmosphere,  as  now  constituted,  and  carried  to  such  great 
distances,  a  little  reflection  shows  what  a  potent  factor  it 
must  have  been  in  the  by-gone  ages.  In  those  days  this  same 
dust  must  have  been  sucked  up,  along  with  the  water-vapor, 
to  very  great  heights,  where  it  was  held  in  suspension  for 
correspondingly  long  periods.  A  few  more  instances  may  be 
pardoned : 

"  M.  Stanislas  Meunier,  the  well-known  authority  upon 


"Archibald  Geikie,  Geo.,  3d  ed.,  p.  337. 


26  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

meteorological  effects,  gives  an  account  of  a  phenomenon  which 
occurred  at  Paris  and  which  was  no  doubt  caused  by  the 
eruption  of  Vesuvius.  On  the  morning  of  the  llth  of  April 
a  dry  and  yellowish  fog  extended  over  the  city.  It  was  strong 
enough  to  interfere  with  the  navigation  on  the  Seine,  and  the 
sun  appeared  under  a  peculiar  aspect.  Supposing  that  this 
phenomenon  might  be  caused  by  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius, 
M.  Meunier  placed  upon  the  roof  of  his  dwelling  a  series 
of  plates  covered  with  glycerine,  so  as  to  retain  the  floating 
dust.  These  plates  when  treated  with  water  gave  a  rather 
abundant  deposit  in  which  soot  and  organic  matter  were 
visible  to  the  naked  eye.  The  fine  portion  of  the  deposit, 
which  was  separated  by  the  Thoulet  heavy  liquid,  gave  an 
extremely  fine  sand,  and  a  microscopic  examination  of  this 
confirmed  M.  Meunier's  idea. 

"  Comparison  of  this  sand  with  the  ash  sent  up  by  Vesu- 
vius in  1822,  of  which  he  had  a  sample,  showed  a  complete 
identity  with  the  latter.  The  main  difference  consists  in 
the  presence  of  some  perfectly  spherical  globules  of  oxidized 
iron  in  the  Paris  dust.  We  may  therefore  admit  that  the 
fog  seen  in  Paris  was  caused  by  the  very  fine  dust  sent  up 
from  Vesuvius."  14 

Tyndall  says :  "  Ashes  have  been  shot  through  the  lower 
current  by  volcanoes,  and,  from  the  places  where  they  have 
subsequently  fallen,  the  direction  of  the  wind  which  carried 
them  has  been  inferred.  Professor  Dove,  who  has  so  enriched 
the  knowledge  of  the  age  by  his  researches  in  meteorology, 
cites  the  following  instance :  '  On  the  night  of  April  30 
explosions  like  those  of  heavy  artillery  were  heard  at  Barba- 
does,  so  that  the  garrison  at  Fort  St.  Anne  remained  all  night 
under  arms.  On  May  1,  at  daybreak,  the  eastern  portion  of 
the  horizon  appeared  clear,  while  the  rest  of  the  firmament 
was  covered  by  a  black  cloud,  which  soon  extended  to  the 


14  Scientific  American,  vol.  xcv,  No.  13. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  27 

east,  quenched  the  light  there,  and  at  length  produced  a  dark- 
ness so  intense  that  the  windows  in  the  rooms  could  not  be 
discerned.  A  shower  of  ashes  descended.  Whence  came 
these  ashes?  From  the  direction  of  the  wind,  we  should 
infer  that  they  came  from  the  Azores;  they  came,  however, 
from  the  volcano  Morne  Garou  in  St.  Vincent,  which  lies 
about  100  miles  west  of  Barbadoes.  The  ashes  had  been  cast 
into  the  current  by  the  upper  trade.  A  second  example  of 
the  same  kind  occurred  on  January  20,  1835.  On  the  24th 
and  25th  the  sun  was  darkened  in  Jamaica  by  a  shower  of 
fine  ashes,  which  had  been  discharged  from  the  mountain 
Coseguina,  distant  800  miles.  The  people  learned  in  this 
way  that  the  explosions  previously  heard  were  not  those  of 
artillery.  These  ashes  could  only  have  been  carried  by  the 
upper  current,  as  Jamaica  lies  northeast  from  the  mountain. 
The  same  eruption  gives  also  a  beautiful  proof  that  the 
ascending  air-current  divides  itself  above,  for  ashes  fell  upon 
the  ship  Conway,  in  the  Pacific,  at  a  distance  of  700  miles 
southwest  of  Coseguina. '  "  15 

Another  class  of  phenomena  which  points  to  the  existence 
of  belts  in  the  upper  confines  of  the  atmosphere  is  the  aurora 
polaris. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  that  these  displays  have  a 
tendency  to  follow  local  time,  as  though  they  were  in  some 
way  connected  with  an  invisible  belt  whose  rotation  period 
was  in  harmony  with  that  of  the  earth's.  Thus  in  the  great 
aurora  of  February  4,  1872,  which  was  visible  in  both 
hemispheres,  it  had  its  maximum  at  about  the  same  local 
time,  between  8.30  and  9.30  P.M.,  and  not  at  the  same  physi- 
cal instant.16 

A  common  appearance  of  the  aurora  is  that  of  parallel 
arches  or  curtains  of  light,  always  running  from  east  to  west 


"Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion,"  6th  ed.,  pp.  209-210. 
16  Frank   Wilbert    Stokes,    Century   Magazine,   Feb.,    1903,   vol.   Ixv, 


No.  4. 


28  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

or  from  west  to  east — a  significant  fact,  for  as  electric  phe- 
nomena depend  upon  a  material  surface  on  which  to  accu- 
mulate, and  as  the  aurora  is  generally  acknowledged  to  be 
of  electrical  origin,  it  proves  the  existence  of  invisible  belts 
in  our  modern  atmosphere. 

It  is  said  of  these  arcs  that  "  in  certain  regions,  and 
probably  also  at  certain  epochs,  the  polar  aurora  manifests 
itself  simply  as  a  very  regular  arc  of  a  circle,  with  well- 
defined  outlines  and  uniformly  luminous  in  all  its  parts,  so 
that  it  presents  an  absoutely  homogeneous  texture.  It  is 
under  this  form  that  the  aurora  borealis  most  often  presented 
itself  to  Professor  Nordenskjold  in  187&-79,  during  the 
celebrated  wintering  of  the  Vega  on  the  northern  coast  of 
Siberia,  almost  at  the  entrance  to  Behring  Strait.  In  this 
station  the  summit  of  the  arc  rarely  exceded  a  height  of 
thirty  degrees  above  the  horizon,  so  that  its  centre  remained 
well  below  the  horizon. 

"  These  arcs  are  generally  completely  motionless  and 
remarkably  permanent:  they  often  retain  their  position  for 
hours  and  even  for  several  days."  17 

Now,  unquestionably  these  belts  or  rivers  flow  above  the 
cloud-zone.  Thus  the  aurora  furnishes  still  another  valuable 
idea.  It  gives  certain  data  regarding  the  height  of  these 
gaseous  belts.  Floegel  deduces  the  following  conclusions: 
"  The  altitude  of  the  base  of  the  rays  is  very  variable ;  it  is 
usually  comprised  between  150  and  250  kilometres  (93  to 
155  miles),  but  its  extreme  limits  attain  perhaps  100  and 
300  kilometres  (62  and  186  miles).  As  to  the  summits  of 
the  rays,  they  often  reach  a  greater  height  than  500  kilo- 
metres (310  miles)  ;  it  is  even  probable  that  they  pass  750 
kilometres  (565  miles)  ;  but  they  appear  never  to  reach 
1,500  kilometres  (930  miles)."18 


"Alfred  Angot,  "The  Aurora  Borealis,"  The   International   Scien- 
tific Series,  pp.  20-21. 
19IUd,  p.  59. 


ATMOSPHERIC  BELTS  29 

It  is  said  also  that  these  displays  may  be  in  part  con- 
nected with  the  presence  of  ferruginous  dust  derived  from  the 
disintegration  of  meteoric  masses  or  from  volcanic  eruptions. 

As  canopies  are  subject  to  the  laws  of  centrifugal  force, 
which  becomes  of  zero  value  at  the  poles,  it  follows  that 
there  always  has  been  an  open  place  in  the  sky  in  those  zones. 
In  this  connection  any  invisible  series  of  belts  existing  to-day 
would  also  be  outlawed  from  the  far  north.  This  feature  is 
indicated  by  the  aurora  and  is  thus  described  in  the  Century 
article  from  which  we  have  already  drawn: 

"  Contrary  to  received  opinion,  the  auroras  do  not  in- 
crease as  we  advance  poleward;  for  in  the  regions  where 
polar  expeditions  have  mostly  wintered,  Melville  Island, 
Baffin  Bay,  and  Smith  Sound,  the  aurora  is  generally  less 
brilliant  and  also  less  frequent  than  in  Iceland,  Labrador, 
and  South  Greenland.  Its  maximum  of  frequency  is  at 
!N"orth  Cape,  Nova  Zembla,  and  at  Cape  Chelyuskin,  Siberia 
— cutting  the  meridian  of  Behring  Strait  at  latitude  70°, 
entering  America  a  little  to  the  west  of  Barrow  Strait,  cross- 
ing Hudson  Bay  and  Labrador,  passing  to  the  south  of 
Greenland  and  Iceland,  and  forming  an  oval  zone  which  has 
for  its  centre  a  point  situated  between  the  geographical  and 
magnetic  poles.  The  latter  is  situated  in  Boothia  Felix 
Land,  in.  latitude  73°  north  and  98°  west  longitude  from 
Paris."  19 

An  objection  may  arise  in  the  minds  of  some  to  the  effect 
that  if  the  arc  of  the  aurora  reveals  belts  in  the  upper  atmos- 
pheric gases,  then  since  these  arcs  are  often  elliptical  rather 
than  circular,  the  belts  assume  a  form  not  reconcilable  with 
the  expected  conditions.  This  may  be  true,  but  whether  the 
conditions  are  such  as  we  picture  in  our  minds  or  not,  the 
fact  remains,  Saturn's  ring  system  is  elliptical.20 

"Vol.  IXT,  No.  4,  Feb.,  1903,  p.  495. 

80 Agnes  M.    Clerke,   "History   of   Astronomy    in    the    Nineteenth 
Century,"  3d  ed.,  pt.  ii,  chap,  viii,  p.  364. 


CHAPTER  III 

PLANETESIMAL  RINGS 

IT  is  a  vast  step  from  Jupiter-like  belts  to  rings  such  as 
circle  Saturn,  and  yet  there  are  features  that  are  common  to 
both.  Rings  composed  of  planetesimal  bodies  riding  at 
immense  heights  may  have  caused  a  secondary  cloud  system 
in  the  atmosphere,  or,  again,  in  falling,  these  rings  may 
have  themselves  formed  canopies.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Saturn 
has  Jupiter-like  belts.  Since  these  marvels  exist,  it  will  be 
well  to  glance  at  certain  of  the  conditions  which  they  intro- 
duce, and  the  laws  which  they  are  forced  to  obey,  with  the 
object  of  showing  that  it  is  quite  possible  that  our  earth 
once  had  such  a  system. 

To  begin  with,  as  the  force  exerted  by  gravity  on  our 
earth  is  not  much  greater  than  on  Saturn,  conditions  similar 
to  those  now  prevailing  on  that  body  may  have  existed  on 
our  globe.  Thus  a  falling  body  on  our  sphere  passes  through 
a  space  of  sixteen  feet  during  the  first  second  of  its  journey. 
On  Saturn  in  the  polar  regions  it  would  cover  seventeen  and 
five-tenths  of  a  foot,  but  at  the  equator,  owing  to  the  increased 
velocity  of  rotation,  the  force  is  lessened  one-sixth,  therefore 
the  falling  body  would  travel  only  fourteen  and  eight-tenths 
feet  in  the  first  second. 

Mathematical  calculations  (Kepler's  Third  Law)  require 
the  rings  in  the  case  of  our  earth  to  have  been  about  2,200 
miles  from  the  surface  in  order  to  maintain  their  stability. 

It  is  known  that  our  sister  planet  has  belts  as  well  as 
rings.  This  is  a  very  important  point.  An  annular  system 
such  as  Saturn's,  taken  by  itself,  would  not  have  influenced 
the  climate  of  our  planet  in  such  a  way  as  to  mark  the  con- 
trasts required  by  the  geological  ages.  For  this  reason  it 

30 


PLANETESIMAL  RINGS  31 

is  obvious  that  a  secondary  cloud  system  is  necessary.  Again, 
though  it  is  true  that  the  upper  system  itself,  if  it  continued 
as  a  feature  in  the  sky  until  man  appeared  on  the  earth, 
would  have  impressed  itself  upon  his  imagination  and  re- 
ligious instinct  so  vividly  that  it  would  have  contributed 
largely  to  his  primitive  nature  myths,  yet  the  secondary 
canopy  system  is  needed  to  round  out  this  record. 

Taking  the  primary  system  into  consideration,  if  we  could 
travel  over  the  surface  of  the  planet  Saturn  to-day,  we  would 
find  that  from  the  pole  as  far  as  the  63d  degree  of  latitude 
the  great  annular  system  would  be  invisible.  Advancing 
toward  the  equator,  the  arches  would  begin  to  rise  above  the 
distant  horizon  more  and  more.  It  would  be  only  during 
the  two  seasons,  spring  and  summer,  that  the  face  of  the 
rings  would  turn  toward  the  hemisphere  where  we  would  be 
standing.  Their  appearance  at  night  would  be  that  of  a 
bright  bow  reflecting  the  light  from  the  sun,  but  in  day-time 
probably  only  a  feeble  light,  analogous  to  that  of  our  moon 
when  seen  in  broad  daylight,  would  be  visible. 

In  mean  latitudes,  of  say  45°,  the  several  series  of  nearly 
concentric  rings  would  be  viewed  sideways.  We  would  see 
three  principal  rings  and  several  minor  subdivisions,  sepa- 
rated by  certain  well-defined  spaces.  Under  the  equator, 
glancing  up  at  the  zenith,  we  would  be  looking  only  at  the 
thin  interior  edge.  It  would  be  ribbon-like  in  appearance, 
for,  according  to  the  evidence  derived  from  the  breadth  of  the 
shadow  cast  on  the  planet,  the  rings  are  only  sixty  miles  thick. 

As  to  the  height  of  these  wonderful  appendages  of  our 
sister  planet,  the  inner  or  "  crape  "  ring,  also  known  as  the 
"  gauze  "  ring,  begins  at  a  distance  of  some  6,400  miles  from 
the  surface  of  the  planet  and  extends  upward  to  about  8,400 
miles.  This  first  ring  merges  by  imperceptible  gradations 
into  another  circlet  which  is  some  18,000  miles  wide.  Then 
comes  an  interval  of  about  1,450  miles,  known  as  "  Cassini's 
division  " ;  after  which  follows  the  outer  ring,  some  10,000 


32  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

miles  wide,  whose  exterior  edge  is  approximately  43,000 
miles  distant  from  the  surface  of  the  planet. 

The  substance  of  the  crape  ring  is  now  generally  admitted 
to  be  a  cloud  of  cosmical  dust,  similar  to  the  cloud  that  causes 
the  phenomenon  of  the  zodiacal  light.  "  The  disk  of  Saturn 
is  seen  through  this  ring  in  undiminished  brightness,  and  in 
May,  1905,  Saturn's  satellite  lapetus  passed  bodily  through 
it.  The  circumstances  and  consequences  of  this  passage 
proved  that  the  gauze  ring  is  composed  of  separate  particles, 
which  are  either  smaller  or  less  closely  aggregated  than  those 
which  form  the  outer  rings."  1 

As  the  rings  draw  nearer  to  the  planet,  increased  col- 
lisions probably  account  for  the  finer  character  of  the  dust, 
the  dashing  together  of  the  particles  reducing  them  to  a  con- 
dition which  when  they  finally  fall  into  the  upper  strata  of 
the  atmosphere  would  result  in  their  immediate  combustion, 
the  gases  resulting  spreading  out  and  forming  the  canopy.2 

There  is  a  close  relationship  between  meteoric  dust  and 
the  aurora  polaris.  "  According  to  this  view,  the  light  of 
the  aurora  is  caused  by  clouds  of  ferruginous  meteoric  dust, 
which  is  ignited  by  friction  with  the  atmosphere.  Groneman 
has  shown  that  these  might  be  arranged  along  the  magnetic 
curves  by  action  of  the  earth's  magnetic  force  during  their 
descent,  and  that  their  influence  might  produce  the  observed 
magnetic  disturbances.  .  .  .  The  correspondences  with 
iron  lines  in  its  spectrum  are  sufficiently  close  to  favor  the 
idea.  Ferruginous  particles  have  been  found  in  the  dust  of 


1  Illustrirte  Zeitung,  and  Scientific  American  Supplements,  Nos.  192, 
1600. 

2  It  is  well  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  gaseous  nature  of  the 
canopy  is  derived  from  combustion,  and  that  no  part  of  it  comes  in 
the  aeriform  fluid  condition  directly  from  the  rings.     The  water-sky 
of  the  ancients  was  of  secondary  origin,  the  water,  or  rather  the  vapor, 
being  derived  from  the  surface  of  the  earth  itself.     As  no  refraction 
is  visible  upon  the  limb  of  the  planet  seen  through  the  gauze  ring,  it 
follows  that  the  ring  itself  is  not  gaseous. 


PLANETESIMAL  RINGS  33 

the  Polar  regions,  but  whether  they  are  derived  from  stellar 
space  or  from  volcanic  eruption  is  uncertain."  3 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  fall  of  meteorites 
indicates  that  they  have  been  whirling  for  some  time  in  belts 
before  finally  reaching  the  earth.  This  of  course  does  not 
apply  to  the  shooting  stars,  which,  coming  from  a  stationary 
radiant  point  in  upper  inter-planetary  space,  are  usually 
consumed  in  our  atmosphere.  With  regard  to  the  former 
class,  a  prediction  was  made  by  Dr.  Oliver  C.  Farrington  in 
the  Popular  Science  Monthly  in  February,  1904,4  in  the 
following  words.  He  said :  "  It  is  usual  to  dismiss  inquiries 
regarding  the  meaning  of  such  groupings  with  the  remark 
that  they  are  mere  coincidences.  But  it  is  the  mission  of 
science  to  investigate  coincidences,  and  however  long  the 
task  may  be  of  determining  the  laws  which  bring  about  the 
particular  occurrences  here  referred  to,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  they  are  the  result  of  law,  and  of  law  which  will  some 
day  be  discerned  by  the  human  mind." 

If  a  few  meteorites  can  make  a  belt  of  sufficient  density 
to  give  rise  to  the  auroral  phenomenon,  naturally  great  things 
should  result  from  the  consumption  of  a  ring  of  such  material. 
Saturn's  rings  are  falling.  "  Since  165 7,  when  Huygens 
described  the  interval  between  the  ring  and  the  planet  as 
rather  exceeding  the  width  of  the  ring,  it  is  all  but  certain 
that  a  growth  inward  has  actually  occurred.  For  the  two 
bright  rings  together,  instead  of  being  narrower  than  the 
interval,  are  now  more  than  one  and  a  half  times  as  broad. 
Hence  the  expressions  used  by  Huygens,  no  less  than  most 
of  the  old  drawings,  are  glaringly  inconsistent  with  the 
planet's  present  appearance."5 


8  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  article  on  the  aurora. 
*Vol.  Ixiv,  No.  4,  p.  354. 

5 Agnes  M.  Clerke,  "History  of  Astronomy  During  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  3d  ed.,  pt.  ii,  chap,  viii,  p.  366. 
3 


34  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Inf  ailing  material  naturally  drifts  towards  the  poles  where 
centrifugal  force  is  annulled,  therefore  since  Saturn's  rings 
to-day  are  falling  and  are  forming  a  canopy,  and  it  is  not 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  another  process  of  nature  in  the 
past  originated  the  blankets  now  seen  on  Jupiter,  Venus, 
and  Mars,  and  that  our  earth  was  garnished  by  one  of 
these  appendages  derived  in  some  other  way. 

In  our  last  chapter  a  volcanic  origin  was  suggested  as  a 
possibility,  but  the  fact  remains.  It  is  altogether  improbable 
that  projectiles  from  terrestrial  volcanoes  ever  received  im- 
pulses powerful  enough  to  enable  them  not  only  to  surmount 
the  earth's  gravity,  but  also  to  penetrate  its  atmosphere.  In 
order  to  meet  this  difficulty  we  were  forced  to  postulate  gases 
lighter  than  air,  but  the  present  assumption  of  an  infalling 
ring  system  accounts  for  the  heavier-than-air  gases,  such  as 
carbon  dioxide,  riding  on  top.  There  is  a  certain  class  of 
meteorites  that  are  carbonaceous. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  material  which  formed  the  rings, 
the  meteoric  hypothesis  meets  with  little  favor,  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  meteorites  through  space  is  too  sparse.  The 
planetesimal  hypothesis  assumes  a  cold  spiral  nebula,  out  of 
which  the  solar  system  has  evolved,  but  long  ages  ago,  it  is 
believed,  inter-planetary  space  was  swept  clean  of  the  dusty 
material.  A  question  arises — Could  this  supply  in  any  way 
have  been  replenished  ? 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  nebulae,  from  which  the 
stellar  systems  are  derived,  are  rendered  luminous  by  virtue 
of  the  continually  recurring  contacts  of  their  various  par- 
ticles. It  is  highly  probable  that  in  space  there  exists  a  far 
larger  number  of  invisible  nebulae  than  visible,  for  the  reason 
that  the  number  of  contacts  in  a  system  of  lighter  texture 
would  be  so  few  that  their  existence  would  not  be  made 
known.  Our  sun  is  continually  rushing  into  new  fields,  and 
the  suggestion  is  made  that  in  some  past  age,  geologically 
speaking,  not  so  very  long  ago,  he  ran  into  one  of  these  minor 


PLANETESIMAL  RINGS  35 

dark  nebulae.6  This  would  have  replenished  the  inter- 
planetary dust,  and  the  velocities  and  distribution  of  such 
particles  would  have  lent  themselves  to  the  formation  of  just 
such  annular  systems,  as  that  which  has  passed  away  from 
our  own  earth,  and  those  now  visible  in  the  final  or  canopy 
stage  on  Venus  and  Jupiter,  and  which  still  survives  on  the 
planet  Saturn.  These  show  us,  not  how  the  worlds  were 
made,  but  how  the  geologic  ages  were  separated  by  the 
planetesimal-ring  clock. 

It  must  be  understood  that  whether  the  nebula  into  which 
our  finished  solar  system  plunged  was  a  gaseous  spheroid 
or  one  arising  from  an  aggregation  of  meteors,  matters  not, 
the  important  factor  being  that  this  newly  acquired  material 
conformed  to  the  general  law  of  such  systems,  revolving  in 
concentric  orbits  about  its  common  centre,  which  was  no 
doubt  captivated  by  our  sun.  The  several  constituent  parts 
must  have  been  attracted  towards  the  different  planets,  around 
which  they  must  have  first  revolved  as  a  nebulous  satellite, 
but,  owing  to  their  disrupted  condition,  they  no  doubt  soon 
trailed  out  into  a  characteristic  ring  formation. 

The  joint  authors  of  Chamberlin's  and  Salisbury's 
Geology  grant  that  "  the  rings  of  Saturn  may  have  been 
satellite  nuclei  at  the  outset,  and  have  been  drawn  within 
the  Roche  limit  by  the  growth  of  Saturn,  and  then  disinte- 
grated by  tidal  action  and  distributed  into  the  ring  form."  7 

Other  methods  of  acquiring  satellites  also  exist.  "  This 
possibility,  it  now  seems,  has  been  actually  realized.  The 
identification  of  Brooks's  with  LexelPs  comet  is  due  to  the 
acumen  of  Dr.  Chandler.  He  found  that  the  former  body 
had  spent  eight  months  in  1886  under  Jupiter's  immediate 
control — had,  in  fact,  barely  escaped  being  reduced  to  the 


6  The  suggestion  that  the  sun  ran  into  a  nebulous  region  is  somewhat 
similar  to  that  hypothesis,  advanced  to  account  for  the  Ice  age,  which 
pictures  certain  regions  in  space  as  colder  than  others. 

7  Vol.  ii,  p.  63. 


36  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

position  of  his  satellite — and  had  issued  from  the  proximity 
with  all  the  elements  of  its  motion  turned,  so  to  speak,  topsy- 
turvy." 8 

If  annular  systems  have  been  acquired  as  suggested,  it 
follows  that  their  period  of  rotation  would  not  at  the  first 
have  been  likely  to  conform  to  that  of  their  adopted  primary. 
Tidal  retardations  would  in  time  adjust  these  differences, 
but  in  the  beginning  this  added  initial  impulse  derived  from 
their  original  system  would  have  tended  to  float  them  high  in 
the  heavens  of  their  new  relative. 

Jupiter  to  this  day  furnishes  us  with  evidence  of  this 
nature.  "  The  time  of  rotation  of  the  red  spot  is  not  the 
same  as  that  of  the  adjacent  cloud-forms.  In  1890  a  large 
spot  was  moving  directly  toward  the  red  spot;  but  it  was 
diverted  from  its  course,  and  passed  at  one  side  of  the  spot. 
After  it  passed  by  it  did  not  return  to  its  original  course, 
but  remained  at  the  higher  latitude  into  which  it  had  been 
shunted;  it  passed  the  red  spot  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles 
an  hour.  Professor  Keeler  has  likened  the  great  red  spot  to 
a  sand-bank  in  a  river,  past  which  the  flecks  of  foam  go 
scurrying."  9 

In  Jupiter's  case,  the  true  globe  has  never  been  seen,  so 
the  period  of  rotation  is  unknown,  though  the  red  spot  may 
represent  some  mighty  physical  disturbance  near  the  sur- 
face. But  this  does  not  seem  likely,  for  even  this  wonderful 
feature  is  itself  subject  to  a  changing  rate  of  rotation.  With 
one  or  two  exceptions,  the  vapor-cloud  currents  are  pretty 
constant,  their  normal  speed  conforming  closely  to  the  gen- 
eral movement  of  the  latitude  in  which  they  circle. 

As  regards  the  relative  altitudes  of  the  various  markings, 
observation  tends  to  show  that  the  more  swiftly  moving 
objects  are  situated  at  a  greater  height  than  those  which  jour- 

8 "History  of  Astronomy  During  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  3d  ed., 
p.  445. 

8 Herbert  A.  Howe,  "A  Study  of  the  Sky,"  p.  255. 


PLANETESIMAL  RINGS  37 

ney  more  slowly.  According  to  the  conditions  outlined  in 
our  last  chapter,  this  is  just  what  should  be  expected.  In 
Jupiter's  case,  an  invisible  gaseous  canopy  surrounds  the 
planet,  the  lower  system  of  cloud-belts  being  lifted  to  heights 
far  above  the  natural  storm  zone  by  the  inability  of  these 
vaporous  masses  to  radiate  their  heat  through  the  greenhouse 
roof.  They  are  aided  somewhat  in  their  upward  tendency 
by  two  causes:  first,  as  already  mentioned,  aqueous  vapor, 
being  lighter  than  air,  would  always  reach  greater  heights 
than  it  does  were  it  not  due  to  condensation  resulting  from 
the  above-mentioned  radiation;  second,  the  great  ocean  of 
gas,  or  rather  planetesimals,  resting  above  the  clouds,  exerts 
a  certain  well  defined  gravitational  pull. 

The  equatorial  belts  observed  in  Jupiter's  canopy  are 
probably  composed  of  ring  material  not  yet  reduced  to  the 
gaseous  form  by  the  oxidizing  agency  of  the  atmosphere. 

Returning  to  the  problem  of  axial  rotation,  we  have  seen 
that  atmospheric  retardation  in  the  case  of  Jupiter's  cloud- 
belts  has  reduced  the  speed  of  the  lower  members  of  the 
system.  The  opposite  characteristic,  however,  prevails  in 
the  case  of  ring  systems.  Thus  Keeler  demonstrated  by 
means  of  the  light  waves  received  from  opposite  sides  of 
Saturn's  rings,  that  they  rotate,  but  the  most  marvelous  part 
of  his  spectroscopic  work  is  the  point  established,  that  the 
interior  part  of  the  rings  rotate  faster  than  the  outside. 

The  following  rotation  periods  are  very  suggestive :  The 
inner  edge  of  the  bright  ring,  7  hours  and  45  minutes.  The 
inner  edge  of  the  innermost  or  crape  ring,  5  hours  39  min- 
utes. The  mean  time  of  the  rings  as  a  whole,  however,  is 
10  hours  and  29  minutes,  which  is  somewhat  longer  than 
that  of  the  planet  itself.  The  atmospheric  canopy  of  Saturn 
does  not  rotate  as  fast  as  the  planet  itself,  and,  moreover, 
different  streams  or  belts  have  relative  motion  with  respect 
to  their  surroundings. 


38  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

If  satellites  and  annular  systems  have  been  acquired  as 
postulated,  we  should  expect  to  find  instances  where  tidal 
action  has  not  yet  brought  about  a  perfect  harmony.  The 
most  prominent  examples  are  found  in  the  satellites  of 
Uranus  and  Neptune,  which  have  a  retrograde  rotation  from 
east  to  west,  a  fact  of  which  neither  Kant  nor  Laplace  had 
been  aware.  Another  striking  instance  is  that  of  Phobos,  one 
of  Mars'  moons,  which  is  the  only  known  case  of  a  satellite 
circulating  faster  than  its  primary  rotates. 

"  Jupiter's  innermost  moon  conforms  in  its  motions 
strictly,  and  indeed  inevitably,  to  the  plane  of  his  equa- 
torial protuberance,  following,  however,  a  sensibly  elliptical 
path.  Its  very  insignificance  raises  the  suspicion  that  it  may 
not  prove  solitary.  Possibly  it  belongs  to  a  zone  peopled  by 
asteroidal  satellites.  More  than  fifteen  thousand  such  small 
bodies  could  be  furnished  out  of  the  materials  of  a  single  full- 
sized  satellite  spoiled  in  the  making."  10 


10 "A  Popular  History  of  Astronomy  During  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury," 3d  ed.,  chap,  viii,  pp.  357-358. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PHYSICAL  EFFCTS— GEOLOGIC 

THE  new  factors  introduced  by  this  hypothesis  throw 
fresh  light  on  many  mooted  questions.  In  this  chapter  it  is 
purposed  to  glance  at  some  of  these;  namely,  tidal  action, 
planetesimal  deposits,  and  the  division  of  the  geologic  periods 
by  the  great  annular  time-clock. 

Taking  these  up  in  the  above  order,  first  we  have  the 
matter  of  the  earth's  rotation  affected  by  these  conditions,  and 
we  find  two  very  important  factors  diametrically  opposed  to 
each  other.  The  contraction  of  the  loosely  compacted  planet- 
esimal world  matter,  on  the  one  hand,  has  increased  our 
planet's  rate  of  rotation,  thus  shortening  the  day,  while  on 
the  other  hand,  the  tidal  brake  is  to  be  credited  with  the  pre- 
vention of  an  excessive  gain  of  this  speed. 

A  doubt  arises  as  to  how  long  the  moon  has  been  respon- 
sible for  this  tidal  restraint.  The  fact  is,  most  of  the  elabo- 
rate calculations  of  the  mathematicians  are  based  on  a  terres- 
trial birth  and  gradual  withdrawal  of  our  satellite.  Yet  this 
birth  and  withdrawal  itself  may  be  questioned.  .  Thus  astron- 
omers tell  us :  "  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  satellites  of 
Jupiter,  Saturn,  or  Mars  (we  may  safely  add,  of  Uranus 
or  Neptune)  'never  revolved  in  much  narrower  orbits  than 
those  they  now  traverse;  it  is  practically  certain  that  they 
did  not,  like  our  moon,  originate  very  near  the  present 
surfaces  of  their  primaries."  1 

It  is  very  strange  if  nature  provided  two  different  methods 
for  the  birth  of  these  children  of  the  planets.  Plainly  the 


1  Agnes  M.  Clerke,  "A  Popular  History  of  Astronomy  During  the 
Nineteenth  Century,"  3d  ed.,  pt.  ii,  chap,  ix,  p.  387.  Phil.  Trans.,  vol. 
clxxii,  p.  530. 


40  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

trouble  with  this  whole  proposition  is  that  it  is  founded  on 
the  old  version  of  the  nebula  hypothesis. 

Now,  turning  to  the  new  interpretation,  the  moon-zones 
or  rings  out  of  which  all  the  satellites  of  the  planets  were 
formed  according  to  the  planetesimal  hypothesis  had  a  gravi- 
tational but  not  a  tidal  effect  on  their  primaries.  Take  the 
case  of  our  earth.  In  opposition  to  terrestrial  gravity  the 
contrary  attraction  of  the  annular  system  must  have  lifted 
immense  bodies  of  water  in  the  equatorial  regions.  Again, 
these  rings  attracted  each  other.  As  some  of  the  inner  rings 
fell  they  acted  as  a  partial  release  to  the  outer  or  moon-zone 
ring,  allowing  it  to  drift  off  farther  and  farther  into  space; 
hence  the  late  birth  of  the  moon  tends  to  ratify  the  inference 
that  we  had  a  regular  annular  system.  The  grinding  down 
of  axial  velocity  and  the  expanding  of  orbital  range  were 
greatly  retarded  by  the  annular  system. 

In  fact,  the  above  is  the  only  tenable  hypothesis  advanced 
to  explain  the  birth  of  our  satellite.  The  break-up  of  the 
primeval  planet  into  two  mases  as  a  consequence  of  a  too 
rapid  rotation  is  open  to  the  objection  that  the  lesser  mass 
would  have  been  entirely  disrupted.  After  this  catastrophe 
these  broken  remnants  necessarily  had  to  reunite.  Why 
introduce  into  the  proposition  two  elements  of  uncertainty 
when  one  is  more  than  sufficient  ? 

We  remarked  that  the  above  is  the  only  tenable  hypothe- 
sis advanced  to  explain  the  origin  of  our  moon,  but  it  may 
be  well  to  qualify  this  remark  with  the  suggestion  that  per- 
haps when  our  sun  picked  up  the  unknown  system  in  stellar 
space,  our  moon  was  already  a  developed  member  of  that 
community.  According  to  this  view,  other  satellites  may 
have  been  added  to  our  mundane  system,  which,  however, 
became  disrupted,  thus  forming  the  rings  postulated. 

But  to  return  to  the  proposition  that  our  moon  was  not 
born  from,  or  rather  torn  from,  our  semi-molten  earth, — 
which,  to  begin  with,  assumes  a  condition  of  earthly  things 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  41 

which  we  cannot  admit  ever  existed, — the  best  authorities 
concurring  in  this  opinion. 

"  Mr.  James  Nolan  of  Victoria  has  made  it  clear  that  the 
moon  could  not  have  subsisted  as  a  continuous  mass  under 
the  powerful  disruptive  strain  which  would  have  acted  upon 
it  when  revolving  almost  in  contact  with  the  present  surface 
of  the  earth ;  and  Professor  Darwin,  admitting  the  objection, 
concedes  to  our  satellite,  in  its  initial  stage,  the  alternative 
form  of  a  flock  of  meteorites.  But  such  a  congregation 
must  have  been  quickly  dispersed,  by  tidal  action,  into  a 
meteoric  ring.  The  same  investigator  fixed  6500  miles  from 
centre  to  centre  as  the  minimum  distance  at  which  the  moon 
could  have  revolved  in  its  entirety."  2 

If  the  moon  had  its  origin  from  the  terrestrial  spheroid, 
then  the  period  of  critical  instability  that  brought  about  its 
birth  occurred  long  aeons  before  the  geologic  time-clock  began 
to  lay  down  its  divisions  of  rock.  Keeping  this  in  mind,  if 
the  moon  is  to  be  credited  with  being  the  chief  agency  in 
developing  oceanic  tides,  then  it  follows  from  these  two 
propositions  that  the  earliest  geologic  ages  should  have  seen 
the  highest  tides.  Now,  the  geological  record  shows  that  very 
high  tides  occurred  in  the  Triassic  period  of  Mesozoic  time; 
if  the  moon  were  so  close  as  to  raise  these  tides  during  the 
Reptilian  age,  then  the  whole  harmony  of  a  gradual  with- 
drawal outward  on  its  long  spiral  journey  is  upset.  The 
first  part  of  the  trip  would  have  been  unreasonably  slow  and 
the  last  portion  at  an  unthinkable  speed;  therefore  we  are 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  moon  was  born  at  too  late 
a  date  to  allow  of  the  thought  that  it  was  separated  intact 
from  its  primary. 

At  first  sight  it  would  appear  that  there  is  no  connection 
between  gravitational  action  on  the  part  of  the  belt  system 
and  geologic  divisions  of  rock  and  of  time,  but  there  is. 


*llid,  pt.  ii,  chap,  viii,  p.  386. 


42  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

j 

Take,  for  example,  the  fact  that  this  pull  exerted  by  the 
rings  was  uniform  around  the  circumference  of  the  earth. 
It  follows  that  there  was  no  tidal  action  due  to  this  cause, 
but  there  must  have  been  a  great  uplift  of  the  waters  of  the 
ocean  under  these  appendages. 

Astronomers  and  physicists  claim  that  the  earth  is  a 
stable  body  more  rigid  than  steel,  and  they  are  extremely 
skeptical  of  the  claims  of  the  geologists  that  involve  vast 
terrestrial  uplifts,  for  they  argue,  if  the  earth  were  less  rigid, 
the  enormous  united  tidal  influences  of  the  sun  and  moon 
would  cause  waves  of  flexure  to  travel  around  the  globe  as 
ocean  tides  do,  and  these  agencies  would  be  powerful  enough 
to  have  a  disrupting  influence. 

Now,  the  idea  which  we  advance  relative  to  the  uplift  of 
the  waters  of  the  ocean  under  the  annular  appendages  does 
much  to  reconcile  these  views.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose 
that  the  earth  is  as  plastic  as  is  generally  claimed  by  the 
geologists,  nor  on  the  other  do  we  have  to  admit  the  stability 
of  the  rigid  condition  required  by  the  astronomers  and  physi- 
cists. The  evidence  shows  that  as  we  descend  from  the  earth's 
surface  we  enter  a  zone  where  owing  to  the  augmented  heat 
rocks  would  be  in  a  state  of  flowage  were  it  not  for  the  in- 
creased gravitational  pressure.  Below  this  region  the  pres- 
sure controls  the  situation.  Now,  the  critical  region  is  rigid 
so  long  as  it  remains  under  control,  but  the  shifting  of  the 
oceanic  weights  has  from  time  to  time  upset  these  stable  con- 
ditions and  introduced  the  plastic. 

Since  the  annular  system  was  subject  to  certain  periodic 
and  also  perhaps  to  erratic  oscillations,  it  follows  that  the 
heaped  up  waters  must  from  time  to  time  have  been  forced 
to  shift.  This  calls  to  mind  the  old  '  waves  of  translation.' 
In  the  early  days  of  geological  theory  one  hypothesis  advanced 
the  idea  that  in  some  manner  a  series  of  gigantic  waves  were 
propagated  in  the  far  north.  These  mysterious  movements 
were  styled  e  waves  of  translation. '  James  Geikie  says,  "  It 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  43 

was  unfortunate  for  this  view  that  it  violated  at  the  very 
outset  the  first  principles  of  the  science,  by  assuming  the 
former  existence  of  a  cause  which  there  was  little  in  nature 
to  warrant."  3 

Perhaps  the  old  hypothesis  is  not  so  bad  after  all,  though 
the  direction  of  the  inundation  should  be  reversed. 

Shoal  water  did  exist  at  the  poles,  as  is  witnessed  by  the 
land  bridges,  by  means  of  which  the  flora  and  fauna  migrated 
from  one  continental  plain  to  the  other,  and  also  by  the 
buried  river  channels,  firths,  and  fiords.  It  is  generally 
admitted  by  all  but  the  astronomers  and  physicists  that  the 
weight  of  the  great  continental  ice  sheets  caused  the  settling 
of  the  land  masses,  and  that  the  vast  accumulation  of  this 
same  ice  also  lent  a  gravitational  pull  that  tended  to  draw 
the  oceanic  waters  towards  the  north ;  but  in  addition  to  these 
reasons  there  certainly  is  no  objection  to  admitting  a  third 
cause  which  logically  accompanies  them.  To  wit,  when  the 
canopy  passed  away  the  uplifted  waters  in  the  equatorial 
regions  sought  their  level.  The  canopy,  as  we  shall  see  in  a 
future  chapter,  was  the  direct  cause  of  the  ice  ages. 

Le  Conte  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  "  at  the 
same  time,  partly  by  subsidence,  and  therefore  slacked  water- 
currents,  and  partly  by  moderated  climate  and  melting  of 
glaciers,  there  was  a  flooded  condition  of  rivers  and  lakes  in 
Middle  Europe,  France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland.  At 
the  same  time,  also,  the  northern  portion  of  Asia  and  the 
lake-region  of  that  continent  were  submerged.  The  Caspian 
Sea,  Lake  Aral,  and  other  lakes  in  that  region  were  probably 
then  united  into  one  great  inland  sea,  connecting  either  with 
the  Black  Sea  or  the  then  greatly-extended  Arctic  Ocean,  or 
with  both."  4 


"  The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  chap,  iii,  p.  26. 

4  Elements  of  Geo.,  5th  ed.,  p.  596.  Nature,  vol.  xiii,  p.  74.  Natural 
History  Magazine,  vol.  xvii,  p.  176.  Archives  des  Science,  vol.  liv, 
p.  427. 


44  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Going  back  in  geological  time  to  yet  earlier  ages,  G. 
Frederick  Wright  says :  "  Coming  down  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  White  Mountains,  the  Adirondacks,  and  the 
Archaean  highlands  of  Canada,  sediment-laden  streams  have, 
from  the  earliest  geological  ages,  been  engaged  in  wearing 
away  the  hills,  scooping  out  the  valleys,  and  silting  up  the 
sea.  The  Alleghany  Mountains  were  at  one  time  the  bed  of 
the  ocean  upon  which  this  sediment  was  deposited.  The 
sandstones,  shales,  and  conglomerates  of  the  coal-measures 
attest  the  activity  of  the  forces  of  that  early  period.  The 
tops  of  the  mountains  in  southern  ~New  York  and  northern 
and  eastern  Pennsylvania  are  covered  with  subcarboniferous 
conglomerates  of  almost  incredible  depth  and  extent,  con- 
sisting largely  of  well-rounded  quartz  pebbles,  of  all  sizes 
up  to  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter.  These  are  water- 
worn,  and  must  have  been  rolled  along  by  impetuous  currents 
from  far-distant  regions."  5 

The  size  of  these  deposits  is  indeed  incredible,  and  the 
tremendous  currents  required  for  their  assortment  are  indeed 
a  puzzle.  The  key  to  the  situation  is  found  in  the  warmth 
of  the  carbonic  climate,  and  this  key  when  turned  in  the 
lock  reveals  a  greenhouse-roof-canopy  that  not  only  piled 
the  waters  up  in  a  heap  but  also  furnished  the  materials  for 
the  coal  plants  and  the  limestones  of  that  era. 

In  connection  with  the  possible  aerial  origin  of  some  of 
the  above  deposits,  H.  L.  Fairchild  makes  the  following  sug- 
gestions, which  show  that  geologists  are  ready  to  admit  the 
extra-terrestrial  origin  of  certain  deposits.  "  With  the  pass- 
ing of  the  old  hypothesis,"  he  says,  "  it  will  be  desirable  to 
change  the  terminology  of  the  rocks  as  far  as  this  now  implies 
an  original  molten  or  c  igneous '  state  of  the  earth.  Some 
new  name  will  be  desirable  for  the  sediments  which  were 
formed  chiefly  or  wholly  from  planetesimals  (the  cosmic 


""The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  chap,  xii,  pp.  268-269. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  45 

matter)  in  the  early  seas  of  the  growing  globe.  Let  us  call 
such  deposits  cosmo elastics,  and  the  primitive  massive  rocks, 
the  cosmics.  The  downward  succession  of  the  rocks  would  thus 
be  from  unaltered  elastics  through  altered  elastics  (meta- 
morphics)  to  metamorphosed  cosmoclastics ;  while  beneath 
these,  perhaps  ever  invisible,  lie  the  altered  cosmics,  the 
primitive  deposits."  6 

Naturally  any  ring  stuff  which  may  have  been  added  to 
the  earth  as  late  as  the  Carboniferous  cannot  be  expected  to 
show  forth  its  origin  as  clearly  as  the  formations  of  the 
archseozoic,  for  the  reason  that  decomposition  of  the  loose 
clastic  material  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  luxuriant  vege- 
tal growth  in  the  former  era. 

Fairchild  distinctly  points  out  that  the  detritus  which 
formed  the  sandstones,  shales,  and  conglomerates  was  not  all 
due  to  the  wearing  away  of  earlier  formations.  He  remarks : 
"  The  nebular  hypothesis  requires  that  the  globe  should  have 
been  fully  formed  before  the  surface  or  epigene  agencies 
began  their  work,  and  that  all  the  vast  deposits  of  fragmen- 
tal  origin,  the  clastic  rocks,  have  been  wholly  derived  from 
the  primitive  land  areas  by  rock  destruction.  The  new 
hypothesis  allows  a  different  view.  According  to  this,  the 
ocean  began  its  work  long  before  the  earth  and  moon  had 
attained  full  size  by  gathering  to  themselves  all  the  particles 
of  the  earth-moon  ring  or  zone.  Consequently,  there  were 
oceanic  sediments  which  were  not  wholly  detrital,  but  were 
primitive  world-stuff.  The  earlier  ocean  sediments  must 
have  been  deeply  buried  under  the  later,  and  may  now  con- 
stitute part  of  the  interior  mass  of  the  globe."  7 

Even  archaeology  testifies  to  strange,  loosely  shifting 
material  which  may  be  in  part  the  wind  blown  remnants  of 
cosmical  world  chaff.  Thus  in  connection  with  BePs  sanc- 


8  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxxiii,  No.  2,  p.  101. 
f  lUd,  p.  100. 


46  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

tuary  at  Nippur,  Herman  V.  Hilprecht  says :  "  In  descend- 
ing into  the  pre-Sargonic  period  below  Naram-Sin's  pave- 
ment, which  itself  lies  six  to  eight  feet  above  the  present 
level  of  the  desert,  Haynes  penetrated  through  more  than 
thirty  feet  of  ruins  before  he  reached  the  virgin  soil,  or 
thirty-five  feet  before  he  was  at  the  water  level.  What  do 
these  ruins  contain?  To  what  period  of  human  history  do 
they  lead  us  ?  How  was  this  great  accumulation  beneath  the 
level  of  the  desert  possible  ?  What  geological  changes  have 
taken  place  since  to  explain  this  remarkable  phenomenon? 
Such  and  other  similar  questions  may  have  come  to  many 
thoughtful  students  when  they  first  read  these  extraordinary 
facts."  8 

Ignatius  Donnelly  imagined  the  earth  covered  with  the 
fragments  from  the  wreck  of  a  comet.  Natural  phenomena, 
however,  connected  with  the  every-day  physical  forces,  ex- 
plain the  origin  of  all  of  these  deposits,  but  though  they  may 
be  explained,  it  does  not  follow  that  some  of  them,  in  part 
at  least,  may  not  owe  their  origin  to  the  ring-belt  system.  In 
other  words,  it's  time  to  break  away  from  the  time-honored 
but  antiquated  principle  of  Charles  Lyell,  that  geological 
evidence  excludes  the  thought  of  catastrophic  changes.  Thus 
the  late  Joseph  Prestwich  contended  for  a  comparatively 
recent  submergence  of  western  Europe  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean coasts.9  The  distribution  of  rubble-drift  was  one  of 
his  strong  lines  of  argument.  Rubble-drift  hardly  answers 
the  requirements,  but  Prestwich  also  mentions  the  wide- 
spread formations  of  the  loess.  In  almost  all  parts  of  the 

""Explorations  in  Bible  Lands  During  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  p. 
891. 

8  Articles  on  this  subject  may  be  found  in  the  following  publications : 
"On  the  Raised  Beaches  and  'Head'  or  Rubble-drift  of  the  South  of 
England,  etc.."  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Society,  vol.  xlviii,  p.  263; 
"  On  the  Evidences  of  a  Submergence  of  Western  Europe  and  of  the 
Mediterranean  Coasts  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  Period,"  etc.,  Phil. 
Trans.,  for  1893. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  47 

•world  this  peculiar  deposit  is  found.  Several  theories  have 
been  proposed  to  account  for  it,  but  none  are  satisfactory. 
It  appears  to  be  associated  with  the  ground-up  materials 
from  the  glaciers  and  to  have  been  rearranged  by  fluviatile 
and  eolian  processes.  The  fossil  content  belongs  to  the  land. 
Bust  from  the  belts  may  readily  enter  in  part  into  its  com- 
position. By  far  the  largest  percentage  of  meteoric  material 
which  reaches  this  earth  is  in  dust  form.  However,  we  are 
not  forced  to  accept  the  statement  that  all  the  material  pre- 
cipitated from  the  belts  was  consumed  to  powder  before 
reaching  terra  firma,  for  if  larger  bodies  did  fall  it  follows 
that  they  would  have  been  quickly  reduced  in  the  mill  of  the 
glaciers  and  the  extreme  weather  conditions  to  which  they 
were  exposed.  Prestwich  also  remarks  the  red  breccia  which 
covers  the  hills  of  southern  Europe. 

The  conclusion  arrived  at  is  that  no  distinctive  deposit 
can  be  found  that  owes  its  origin  wholly  to  the  belts,  for  the 
reason  that  from  the  beginning  such  material  was  loose  and 
scattered,  and  therefore  subjected  to  the  most  rigorous  of  the 
disintegrating  processes. 

Though  it  is  impossible  at  this  time  to  identify  any  of 
the  superficial  debris  as  planetesimal  dust,  yet  some  of  the 
old  views  regarding  these  depositions  are  in  this  connection 
of  rare  interest.  For  instance,  Sir.  J.  W.  Dawson  says  of 
them: 

"  The  deposits  of  the  mammoth  age,  and  it  would  seem 
of  the  reindeer  age  as  well,  are  covered  with  beds  of  yellow 
earth,  brick  earth,  and  earth  with  angular  stones,  which  ante- 
date the  later  stone  age  and  bronze  age.  These  deposits  con- 
stitute the  ordinary  soil  of  the  country,  and  at  all  levels,  and 
they  are  evidently  of  the  same  nature  with  the  superficial 
gravels,  soils,  and  loess  to  be  found  resting  on  the  pleistocene 
deposits  everywhere  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  which 
have  poured  into  the  old  caverns  of  the  Palseocosmic  age. 
They  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  ordinary  glacial 


48  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

deposits  which  in  northern  districts  underlie  them.  They 
are  not  river  deposits,  because  no  possible  extension  of  the 
river  beds  could  overflow  the  places  where  they  lie,  or  bring 
the  stones  from  very  distant  localities  which  the  gravels  often 
contain.  They  prove  as  Howorth,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and 
the  writer  have  argued,  that  at  the  close  of  the  Palseocosmic 
age  a  deluge  of  water  swept  over  our  continents  and  caused 
the  physical  break  between  the  earlier  and  later  human  ages. 
This  great  cataclysm  was  preceded,  in  Europe  at  least,  by 
a  gradual  refrigeration  and  a  progressive  extinction  of  the 
larger  animals,  and  was  followed  by  a  diminished  size  of 
the  continents,  and  by  the  advent  over  the  depopulated  sur- 
face of  a  more  limited  fauna  and  a  new  race  of  men.  That 
it  must  have  been  this  great  cataclysm  which  has  fixed  itself 
in  the  traditions  of  all  races  of  men  as  the  historical  deluge, 
we  can  scarcely  doubt."  10 

Before  the  facts  of  the  stupendous  work  done  in  the  ice 
ages  were  generally  understood,  certain  phenomena  which 
have  since  been  attributed  to  this  agency  were  given  other 
interpretations.  Thus  the  loess  was  called  "  inundation 
mud,"  and  perhaps  the  idea  was  not  so  very  wrong  after  all. 
It  was  known  to  have  covered  much  of  Europe  and  of  Asia, 
and  inasmuch  as  G.  Frederick  Wright  has  found  evidence 
of  a  very  extensive  recent  submergence  in  this  latter  con- 
tinent,11 the  old  idea  gains  new  credence.  The  Duke  of 
Argyll  says: 

"  On  the  continent  of  Europe,  too,  we  know  that  a  large 
part  of  its  central  area  is  occupied  by  a  formation  (the 
'  loess ')  which  Lyell  calls  '  inundation  mud,'  and  which  he 
designates  as  the  last  and  latest  of  all  the  great  formations 
known  to  geology.  The  difficulty  of  accounting  for  it  is 
proved  by  the  number  of  theories  which  have  been  pro- 


10 "  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,"  chap,  in,  pp.  137-138. 

n  American  Geologist,  vol.  v,  No.  3,  p.  182.     McClure's,  June,  1901. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  49 

pounded.  The  shells  in  this  formation  are  not  fluviatile,  nor 
are  they  lacustrine.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  not  marine. 
They  are  terrestrial.  They  are  land  shells — the  shells  of 
damp  woods  or  morasses — in  short,  of  a  land  surface  which 
has  been  covered  with  this  '  inundation  mud.'  One  possible 
explanation  is  obvious.  The  sea  establishes  its  own  forms 
of  life  where  itself  is  established  for  any  length  of  time. 
But  if  its  invasion  of  any  land  area  be  not  lasting,  but 
temporary,  it  may  fail  to  carry  its  mere  dead  shells  over 
that  area,  whilst  its  living  fauna  would  not  have  had  time  to 
grow."  12 

Having  outlined  the  powerful  influence  that  the  gravita- 
tional pull  of  the  annular  system  exerted,  it  is  next  pur- 
posed, as  set  forth  in  the  opening  statement  of  this  chapter, 
to  show  how  these  inundations  and  the  climatic  changes 
brought  about  by  the  canopy  itself  may  be  likened  to  a 
great  annular  time-clock,  dividing  the  geological  periods 
from  each  other. 

Every  one  knows  that  a  geological  clock  would  be  a  very 
convenient  thing,  an  instrument  that  would  assure  the  inves- 
tigator that  the  same  time  divisions  were  synchronous  in 
all  localities.  It  is  manifest  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  that 
such  an  instrument  has  existed  throughout  the  geological 
ages.  The  present  hypothesis  reveals  the  clock,  its  work- 
ings, and  the  method  by  which  we  may  ascertain  the  striking 
of  the  hours. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  even  the  subordinate  groups 
of  a  formation  are  almost  as  definitely  marked  off  in  the 
same  order,  the  world  over,  as  the  major  terranes  themselves. 
This  is  true  not  only  of  the  stratagraphic  arrangement,  but 
also  of  the  fossil  content.  Why,  it  might  be  asked,  could 
not  a  migration  have  occurred  backwards  from  one  conti- 
nent to  the  other,  the  Silurian  fauna  being  imposed  upon  the 


"Article  by  Argyll  in  the  Contemporary  Review. 

i 


50  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Devonian,  for  instance?  Clearly  there  was  some  hindering 
and  controlling  cause  that  made  the  conditions  nearly  uni- 
form throughout  the  world,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
even  the  minor  subdivisions  were  practically  synchronous  or 
contemporaneous.  The  singular  uniformity  of  the  litho- 
logical  record,  moreover,  indicates  that  this  controlling  cause 
was  more  than  physical;  it  was  material. 

It  is  postulated  that  a  separate  fall  marked  the  end  of 
each  geological  age,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  subsidiary  falls 
punctuated  each  era,  period,  and  epoch.  These  falls  were 
not,  generally  speaking,  catastrophic,  but  were  gradual.  Take 
that  which  marked  the  Ice  age.  Large  quantities  of  snow 
and  ice,  no  doubt,  fell  from  the  upper  cloud  belt  itself.  Not 
only  must  this  fall  have  been  long  drawn  out,  but  the  result- 
ing glaciers  also  protracted  the  time  by  locking  in  their  icy 
chain  such  hordes  that  the  heat  of  centuries  was  not  sufficient 
to  melt  them. 

In  chapter  three  it  was  stated  that  it  was  possible  that  the 
earth's  annular  system  was  picked  up  from  new  sweepings 
derived  from  the  cosmical  dust  of  a  minor  or  dark  nebula 
into  whose  territory  our  solar  system  had  plunged.  It 
is  established,  however,  from  the  evidence  of  the  time 
clock,  that  our  system  has  survived  from  the  dawn  of  geo- 
logical phenomena.  Following  inevitable  law,  ring  after 
ring  has  broken  away  from  the  equatorial  system,  has  spread 
out  and  formed  canopies,  only  to  be  eventually  claimed  by 
the  earth.  It  follows  from  this  order  that  between  the  fall 
of  each  separate  ring  there  was  probably  a  time  of  clear 
skies,  except  for  the  ribbon-like  edge  of  the  disks  which 
spanned  the  zenith  at  the  equator. 

The  fact  of  these  clear  skies  is  very  important  to  the 
present  hypothesis  because  the  existence  of  exogenous  trees, 
growing  by  annular  rings  added  to  the  outside,  as  early  as 
Devonian  time,  proves  the  action  of  alternating  seasons  of 
summer  and  winter,  and  hence  a  solar  climate.  Again, 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— GEOLOGIC  51 

since  it  is  purposed  to  show  that  the  last  remnant  of  the  ring 
system  did  not  pass  away  until  after  civilized  man  appeared 
on  the  earth,  it  is  necessary  that  he  could  have  seen  the  clear 
sky,  for  otherwise  the  early  records  which  he  has  left  us 
would  be  violated,  as  they  contain  accurate  descriptions  of 
solar  and  stellar  phenomena. 

In  the  American  Geologist  of  February,  1904,13  attention 
is  called  to  a  twisted  form  of  stem  exhibited  by  certain 
shallow-water  monticuliporoids  of  the  lower  Silurian,  which 
Sardeson  interprets  as  possibly  due  to  heliotropism,  and 
hence  an  indication  of  direct  sunlight.  The  article  goes 
on  to  state  that  "  if  these  indications  of  early  solar  climate 
can  be  explained  conformably  with  Mr.  Manson's  theory,  or 
a  modification  of  it,  certainly  a  most  serious  obstacle  will  be 
overcome."  Now,  in  our  preface  Manson's  theory  was  men- 
tioned as  a  scientific  presentation  of  an  atmospheric  cloud- 
canopy.  Here  where  it  is  lacking,  the  hypothesis  under  con- 
sideration is  strong.  Open  skies  did  exist  for  a  large  part  of 
the  time. 


Vol.  xxxiii,  No.  2,  p.  120;  vol.  xxvii,  p.  388. 


CHAPTER  V 

PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC 

"  THE  very  limited  number  of  generic  forms  that  pass 
from  one  major  formation  to  another  is  remarkable.  Bar- 
rande  enumerates  but  seven  of  the  twenty-seven  Cambrian 
genera  which  pass  over  into  the  Silurian,  and  twelve  of  the 
fifty-five  Silurian  genera  which  reappear  in  the  Devonian. 
The  Carboniferous  genera  are  but  three  or  four  in  number 
(Phillipsia,  Griifithides,  Brachymetopus,  Proetus).  Of  the 
fifty-five  Silurian  genera,  with  three  exceptions,  all  the  forms 
are  already  represented  in  the  lower  division.  The  number 
of  genera  that  extend  through  two  or  more  formations  is 
reduced  to  two  or  three  (Phillipsia,  Proetus)."  x 

Rutherford  has  aptly  said :  "  Since  the  different  forms 
of  life  found  in  the  successive  geological  strata  indicate  the 
stages  of  evolution,  it  is  evident  that  the  biological  and  geo- 
logical clock  is  the  same,  and  that  whatever  time  is  required 
for  the  changes  in  the  one  science  must  be  conceded  by  the 
other."  2 

As  a  canopy  fell  a  geological  age  ended,  and  with  it  its 
life  conditions.  In  course  of  time  a  second  and  originally 
a  higher  ring  descended,  forming  another  canopy,  with  its 
resultant  new  world  environment  and  with  its  new  life  con- 
ditions admitting  of  a  higher  order.  These  in  turn  gave  way 
to  similar  falls  and  to  successive  marches  of  still  other  rings 
and  canopies  across  the  ephemeral  sky.  Thus  the  record  is 
written,  and  the  facts  are  for  our  investigation.  In  the 
succeeding  chapters  it  is  purposed  to  show  that  the  new 


1  Angelo   Heilprin,   "  The  Geographical  and   Geological  Distribution 
of  Animals,"  International  Scientific  Series,  pt.  iii,  chap,  i,  p.  277. 
8  Harper's  Monthly,  Feb.,  1905,  p.  390. 
52 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  53 

physical  conditions  introduced  by  annular  phenomena  are 
responsible  for  these  deaths,  and  that  they  also  are  potent 
factors  in  causing  the  surviving  species  to  mutate.  Finally 
the  geographical  distribution  of  the  flora  and  fauna  will  be 
shown  to  have  taken  place  in  accord  with  the  new  hypothesis. 

The  fact  of  the  imperfection  of  the  geological  and  bio- 
logical record  demonstrates  the  catastrophic  nature  of  the 
end  of  the  age  changes.  Had  these  occurred  by  gradual 
stages,  the  missing  links  would  be  wanting,  that  is,  if  life 
had  developed  along  the  lines  of  the  Darwinian  School.  But 
there  are  missing  links,  as  every  one  knows,  and  each  one 
of  these  links  means  a  catastrophe  of  some  nature.  Each 
succeeding  geological  age  had  its  own  development,  which, 
though  it  was  a  continuation  in  part  of  the  preceding  age, 
nevertheless  had  distinctive  peculiarities,  due  to  climate, 
absorption  of  light  and  heat  rays,  weight  of  the  atmosphere, 
etc.  Probably  also  the  waters  were  at  times  impregnated  and 
the  air  vitiated. 

To  begin  with,  as  Darwin  himself  showed,  the  intervals 
that  elapsed  between  consecutive  formations  were  usually 
much  longer  than  the  formations  themselves.  Angelo  Heil- 
prin  says :  "  It  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  certain 
anomalies  connected  with  the  occurrence  of  breaks  which 
have  not  thus  far  received  an  adequate  explanation.  Their 
broad  distribution — it  might,  indeed,  almost  be  said  univer- 
sality— in  equivalent  periods  of  time,  has  long  been  noted  as 
a  surprising  fact,  and  one  that  still  remains  in  the  nature 
of  a  puzzle  to  the  geologist.  Nowhere  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth  has  there  as  yet  been  found  a  distinct  connection 
between  the  Paleozoic  and  Mesozoic  series  of  deposits,  and 
only  at  a  very  few  points  (India,  New  Zealand,  California) 
what  may  be  considered  to  be  an  unequivocal  link  between  the 
Mesozoic  and  Cainozoic  series  (Cretaceous  and  Tertiary)."  3 


"The  Geographical  and  Geological  Distribution  of  Animals,"  p.  193. 


54  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

This  is  as  it  should  be,  for  only  during  a  period  of  change 
were  the  forces  of  nature  fully  awakened,  and  the  general 
character  of  these  changes  was  the  natural  result  of  a  shift 
or  alteration  in  a  system  that  environed  the  world.  Sec- 
ondary results  followed  immediately,  and  these  in  turn  fre- 
quently followed  others.  Thus  the  violent  shifting  of  the 
oceanic  waters  as  pictured  in  our  last  chapter  must  have 
induced  sympathetic  volcanic  action.  Illustrations  of  all 
kinds  are  plentiful.  The  Arctic  mammoth  luxuriating  in 
polar  pastures  were  overwhelmed  suddenly  and  placed  in 
cold  storage  with  undigested  food  in  the  stomach. 

Elephant  Point,  Alaska,  is  famous  as  the  locality  where 
Kotzebue  found  remains  of  the  fossil  elephant,  ox,  and  other 
mammals.  Its  bluffs  are  said  to  be  composed  of  tough  blue 
clay,  light  loose  soil,  bones,  and  solid  ice.  These  cliffs  are  some- 
times fifty  feet  thick,  and  extend  for  two  miles  east  and  west. 
"  The  smell  of  these  ice  cliffs,"  says  Dr.  Tarleton  H.  Bean, 
"  resembles  that  of  a  stable  or  something  worse."  "  The 
old  Russians  living  in  Siberia  were  of  opinion  that  the 
mammoth  was  an  animal  of  the  same  kind  as  the  elephant, 
and  that  Siberia  had  been  warmer  before  the  Flood  than 
now,  and  elephants  had  then  lived  in  numbers  there;  that 
they  had  been  drowned  in  the  .Flood,  and  afterwards,  when 
the  climate  became  colder,  had  frozen  in  the  river  mud."4 
The  question  as  to  the  origin  of  this  graveyard  is  easily 
explained  by  the  present  hypothesis. 

Looking  back  at  some  of  the  early  ages,  the  same  record 
of  sudden  death  confronts  us.  Even  Lvell.  who  always 

tj  /  */ 

emphasized  gradual  development  along  ultra  conservative 
lines,  cannot  help  recognizing  this  feature.  He  says : 

"  It  has  been  remarked,  and  truly,  that  many  fish  and 
saurians,  found  fossil  in  the  Lias,  must  have  met  with  sud- 
den death  and  immediate  burial:  and  that  the  destructive 


4 Nordenskjold,  "Voyage  of  the  Vega,"  p.  305. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  55 

operation,  whatever  may  have  been  its  nature,  was  often 
repeated. 

"  (  Sometimes/  says  Dr.  Buckland,  '  scarcely  a  single 
bone  or  scale  has  been  removed  from  the  place  it  occupied 
during  life ;  which  could  not  have  happened  had  the  uncov- 
ered bodies  of  these  saurians  been  left,  even  for  a  few  hours, 
exposed  to  putrefaction,  and  to  the  attacks  of  fishes  and 
other  smaller  animals  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.'  Not  only  are 
the  skeletons  of  the  Ichthyosaurs  entire,  but  sometimes  the 
contents  of  their  stomachs  still  remain  between  their  ribs, 
as  before  remarked,  so  that  we  can  discover  the  particular 
species  of  fish  on  which  they  lived,  and  the  form  of  their 
excrements.  Not  unfrequently  there  are  layers  of  these 
coprolites,  at  different  depths  in  the  Lias,  at  a  distance  from 
any  entire  skeletons  of  the  marine  lizards  from  which  they 
were  derived ;  '  as  if/  says  Sir  H.  de  la  Beche,  '  the  muddy 
bottom  of  the  sea  received  small  sudden  accessions  of  matter 
from  time  to  time,  covering  up  the  coprolites  and  other 
exuviaa  which  had  accumulated  during  the  intervals.'  It  is 
further  stated  that,  at  Lyme  Regis,  those  surfaces  only  of 
the  coprolites  which  lay  uppermost  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea 
have  suffered  partial  decay,  from  the  action  of  water  before 
they  were  covered  and  protected  by  the  muddy  sediment  that 
has  afterwards  permanently  enveloped  them. 

"  Numerous  specimens  of  the  Calamary,  or  pen-and-ink 
fish  (Geoteuthis  bollensis),  have  also  been  met  with  in  the 
Lias  at  Lyme,  with  the  ink-bags  still  distended,  containing 
the  ink  in  a  dried  state,  chiefly  composed  of  carbon,  and  but 
slightly  impregnated  with  carbonate  of  lime.  These  cephalo- 
poda, therefore,  must,  like  the  saurians,  have  been  soon 
buried  in  sediment;  for,  if  long  exposed  after  death,  the 
membrane  containing  the  ink  would  have  decayed."  5 


5  Elements    of    Geo.,   pp.    362,    363.      Bridgewater    Treatise,   p.    115. 
Geological  Researches,  p.  334.     Buckland,  Bridgewater  Treatise,  p.  307. 


56  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Hugh  Miller  says :  "  The  river  bull-head,  when  attacked 
by  an  enemy,  or  immediately  as  it  feels  the  hook  in  its  jaws, 
erects  its  two  spines  at  nearly  right  angles  with  the  plates  of 
the  head,  as  if  to  render  itself  as  difficult  of  being  swallowed 
as  possible.  The  attitude  is  one  of  danger  and  alarm;  and 
it  is  a  curious  fact  *  *  *  that  in  this  attitude  nine- 
tenths  of  the  Pterichthys  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone 
are  found.  We  read  in  the  stone  a  singularly  preserved  story 
of  the  strong  instinctive  love  of  life,  and  of  the  mingled  fear 
and  anger  implanted  for  its  preservation — '  The  champions 
in  distorted  postures  threat.7  It  presents  us,  too,  with  a 
wonderful  record  of  violent  death  falling  at  once,  not  on  a 
few  individuals,  but  on  whole  tribes."  6 

Again,  the  above  author  describes  a  scene  of  death  which 
suggests  at  once  the  agency  of  pollution  from  the  fall  of 
cosmical  canopy  dust.  He  says: 

"  At  this  period  of  our  history,  some  terrible  catastrophe 
involved  in  sudden  destruction  the  fish  of  an  area  at  least  a 
hundred  miles  from  boundary  to  boundary,  perhaps  much 
more.  The  same  platform  in  Orkney  as  at  Cromarty  is 
strewed  thick  with  remains,  which  exhibit  unequivocally  the 
marks  of  violent  death.  The  figures  are  contorted,  con- 
tracted, curved;  the  tail  in  many  instances  is  bent  round  to 
the  head ;  the  spines  stick  out ;  the  fins  are  spread  to  the  full, 
as  in  fish  that  die  in  convulsions.  The  PterlchtJiys  shows 
its  arms  extended  at  their  stiffest  angle,  as  if  prepared  for 
an  enemy.  The  attitude  of  the  ichthyolites  on  this  platform 
are  attitudes  of  fear,  anger,  and  pain.  The  remains,  too, 
appear  to  have  suffered  nothing  from  the  after-attacks  of 
predaceous  fishes;  none  such  seem  to  have  survived.  The 
record  is  one  of  destruction  at  once  widely  spread  and  total, 
so  far  as  it  extended.  There  are  proofs  that,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  catastrophe,  it  must  have  taken 


"  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  chap,  ii,  p.  48. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  57 

place  in  a  sea  unusually  still.  The  scales,  when  scattered  by 
some  slight  undulation,  are  scattered  to  the  distance  of  only 
a  few  inches,  and  still  exhibit  their  enamel  entire,  and  their 
peculiar  fineness  of  edge.  The  spines,  even  when  separated, 
retain  their  original  needle-like  sharpness  of  point.  Rays 
well  nigh  as  slender  as  horse-hairs  are  enclosed  unbroken  in 
the  mass.  Whole  ichthyolites  occur,  in  which  not  only  all 
the  parts  survive,  but  even  the  expression  which  the  stiff  and 
threatening  attitude  conveyed  when  the  last  struggle  was 
over.  Destruction  must  have  come  in  the  calm,  and  it  must 
have  been  of  a  kind  by  which  the  calm  was  nothing  dis- 
turbed. In  what  could  it  have  originated  ?  By  what  quiet 
but  potent  agency  of  destruction  were  the  innumerable  exist- 
ences of  an  area  perhaps  ten  thousand  square  miles  in  extent 
annihilated  at  once,  and  yet  the  medium  in  which  they  had 
lived  left  undisturbed  by  its  operations  ?  Conjecture  lacks 
footing  in  grappling  with  the  enigma,  and  expatiates  in 
uncertainty  over  all  the  known  phenomena  of  death.  Dis- 
eases of  mysterious  origin  break  out  at  times  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  and  well  nigh  exterminate  the  tribes  on  which  they 
fall.  The  present  generation  has  seen  a  hundred  millions 
of  the  human  family  swept  away  by  a  disease  unknown  to 
our  fathers.  Virgil  describes  the  fatal  murrain  that  once 
depopulated  the  Alps,  not  more  as  a  poet  than  as  a  historian. 
The  shell-fish  of  the  rivers  of  North  America  died  in  such 
vast  abundance  during  a  year  of  the  present  century,  that 
the  animals,  washed  out  of  their  shells,  lay  rotting  in  masses 
beside  the  banks,  infecting  the  very  air.  About  the  close  of 
the  last  century,  the  haddock  well  nigh  disappeared,  for 
several  seasons  together,  from  the  eastern  coasts  of  Scotland ; 
and  it  is  related  by  Creech  that  a  Scotch  shipmaster  of  the 
period  sailed  for  several  leagues  on  the  coast  of  Norway, 
about  the  time  the  scarcity  began,  through  a  floating  shoal 
of  dead  haddocks.  But  the  ravages  of  no  such  disease,  how- 
ever excessive,  could  well  account  for  some  of  the  phenomena 


68  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

of  this  platform  of  death.  It  is  rarely  that  disease  falls 
equally  on  many  different  tribes  at  once,  and  never  does  it 
fall  with  instantaneous  suddenness;  whereas  in  the  ruin  of 
this  platform  from  ten  to  twelve  distinct  genera  seem  to  have 
been  equally  involved;  and  so  suddenly  did  it  perform  its 
work  that  its  victims  were  fixed  in  their  first  attitude  of  terror 
and  surprise.  I  have  observed,  too,  that  groups  of  adjoining 
nodules  are  charged  frequently  with  fragments  of  the  same 
variety  of  ichthyolite;  and  the  circumstance  seems  fraught 
with  evidence  regarding  both  the  original  habits  of  the 
creatures  and  the  instantaneous  suddenness  of  the  destruc- 
tion by  which  they  were  overtaken.  They  seem,  like  many 
of  our  existing  fish,  to  have  been  gregarious,  and  to  have 
perished  together  ere  their  crowds  had  time  to  break  up  and 
disperse. 

"  Fish  have  been  found  floating  dead  in  shoals  beside 
submarine  volcanoes — killed  either  by  the  heated  water  or  by 
mephitic  gases.  There  are,  however,  no  marks  of  volcanic 
activity  in  connection  with  the  ichthyolite  beds — no  marks, 
at  least,  which  belong  to  nearly  the  same  age  with  the  fossils. 
The  disturbing  granite  of  the  neighboring  eminences  was 
not  upheaved  until  after  the  times  of  the  Oolite.  But  the 
volcano,  if  such  was  the  destroying  agent,  might  have  been 
distant;  nay,  from  some  of  the  points  in  an  area  of  such 
immense  extent,  it  must  have  been  distant.  The  beds  abound, 
as  has  been  said,  in  lime;  and  the  thought  has  often  struck 
me  that  calcined  lime,  cast  out  as  ashes  from  some  distant 
crater,  and  carried  by  the  winds,  might  have  been  the  cause 
of  the  widely  spread  destruction  to  which  their  organisms 
testify.  I  have  seen  the  fish  of  a  small  trouting  stream,  over 
which  a  bridge  was  in  the  course  of  building,  destroyed  in 
a  single  hour,  for  a  full  mile  below  the  erection,  by  the 
few  troughfuls  of  lime  that  fell  into  the  water  when  the 
centring  was  removed."  7 

,  pp.  221-225. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  59 

It  was  stated  above  that  during  the  periods  of  canopy 
change  sympathetic  earth  movements  occurred.  James  D. 
Dana  illustrates  this  point  in  the  following  language: 
"  Prominent  among  the  events  influencing  the  rock-structure 
and  life  of  a  continent  is  that  of  mountain-making.  The 
Appalachian  Mountains  stand  as  a  grand  time-boundary 
between  the  Paleozoic  seon  and  the  Mesozoic;  and  contem- 
poraneous orographic  movements  make  a  like  limit  in  Euro- 
pean geology.  Moreover,  it  was  attended  by  the  most  re- 
markable of  organic  breaks.  The  Taconic  Mountains  mark 
the  close  of  the  Lower  Silurian,  an  epoch  of  abrupt  change  in 
North  America;  and  parallel  disturbances  occurred  in 
Britain  and  Europe.  The  Laramide  or  post-Cretaceous 
mountain  system  along  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  another  such 
boundary  for  America,  separating  Mesozoic  and  Cenozoic 
time,  though  not  as  complete  in  the  attendant  organic  break 
as  in  the  physical.  But  it  so  happens  that  no  corresponding 
event  occurred  at  this  time  in  Europe,  the  orographic  move- 
ments most  nearly  synchronous  taking  place  after  the  com- 
mencement of  Cenozoic  time.  Nevertheless,  the  organic 
break  at  the  close  of  the  Cretaceous  period  is  even  greater 
for  Europe  than  for  America.  Such  a  fact  seems  to  show 
that  there  was  some  other  catastrophic  event  concerned;  but 
its  nature  is  yet  to  be  studied  out."  8 

Again  Dana  says :  "  Paleozoic  time  is  naturally  divided 
into  two  sections  at  the  break  between  the  Lower  and  Upper 
Silurian.  This  boundary  line  is  marked  in  the  history  by 
an  epoch  of  mountain-making  in  eastern  North  America  and 
western  Europe,  and  by  a  somewhat  abrupt  transition  in 
animal  life  of  the  seas."  9 

We  need  not  stop  to  point  to  the  drift  and  meaning  of 
all  this  testimony.  In  the  last  hundred  years  geology,  like 
biology,  has  tossed  from  the  cataclysms  of  Cuvier  and  his 

'Manual  of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  pt.  iv,  p.  406. 
9  Ibid,  p.  460. 


60  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

geological  revelations  to  the  slow  principle  of  the  Doctrine  of 
Uniformity  as  advocated  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  The  latter 
is  antiquated,  and  at  the  present  time  the  best  thought  of 
the  age  is  swinging  back  under  the  leadership  of  Suess  to 
recognize  sudden  transformations. 

The  late  Joseph  Le  Conte  is  one  of  those  who  have  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  "  the  present  condition  of  geological  evi- 
dence is  undoubtedly  in  favor  of  some  degree  of  suddenness." 
He  adds  further  on  in  the  same  work  from  which  the  above 
is  cited :  "In  the  evolution  of  the  organic  kingdom,  as  in 
the  evolution  of  the  earth,  in  the  evolution  of  society,  in  the 
evolution  of  the  egg,  in  fact,  as  in  all  evolution,  there  have 
been  periods  of  comparative  quiet  and  periods  of  rapid 
change."  10 

The  doctrine  of  evolution  by  distinct  and  abrupt  muta- 
tions, as  advanced  by  De  Vries,11  which  is  now  claiming  the 
closest  attention  of  the  biological  world,  clearly  recognizes 
this  fact.  The  present  hypothesis  presents  the  causes  which 
stimulated  the  individual  or  perhaps  whole  colonies  to  become 
mutants. 

Closely  related  to  the  suddenness  is  the  fact  of  periodicity 
in  the  introduction  of  species.  They  come  in  by  bursts  or 
flood  tides  at  particular  points  of  time.  These  periods  are 
followed  and  preceded  by  times  of  ebb  in  which  little  that 
is  new  is  evolved.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  since  the 
Glacial  age  no  new  species  of  mammal  has  originated. 

"  A  great  number  of  zoologists,  botanists,  and  paleon- 
tologists are  inclined  to  adopt  this  notion  of  sudden  changes 
as  consonant  with  the  teachings  of  experience.  We  may  cite 
in  this  connection  the  well-known  argument  of  Agassiz.  This 
celebrated  naturalist  called  attention  to  the  simultaneous 
appearance,  in  the  first  fossiliferous  strata,  of  a  mixed  fauna 


10 "  Keligion  and  Science,"  pp.  22,  25. 
"Die  Mutationstheorie,  1903. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  61 

comprising  representations  of  all  the  grand  divisions  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  This  is  shown  in  the  Upper  Silurian  or 
Devonian  horizon  in  which  the  vertebrates  make  their  appear- 
ance in  the  form  of  fish.  In  the  most  ancient  fauna,  and 
that  which  has  become  known  most  recently  (that  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  or  Cambrian),  all  the  grand  divisions  are 
still  found,  except  that  of  vertebrates,  each  represented  by 
quite  high  types.  It  is  a  question  to  be  decided  whether, 
lower  down,  in  the  sedimentary  rocks  hitherto  considered  as 
azoic,  there  is  really  a  living  population,  more  scattered,  and 
reduced  to  the  most  rudimentary  animals  and  plants — that 
is  to  say,  to  protophytes  and  protozones,  as  appears  from  the 
researches  of  MM.  Barrois,  Bertrand,  and  Cayeux.  Yet 
it  is  none  the  less  certain  that  the  very  important  remark 
of  Agassiz  is  true,  and  that,  in  the  Cambrian  horizon,  all 
the  principal  types  appear  simultaneously.  We  recognize 
here  a  sort  of  explosion  of  universal  life. 

"  In  consequence  of  this  the  transformists  are  obliged 
to  admit  that  in  the  short  space  of  time  that  corresponds  to 
the  deposit  of  the  most  ancient  fossiliferous  rocks  the  first 
living  beings  must  have  undergone  all  the  evolutions  neces- 
sary for  passing  from  the  state  of  a  simple  mass  of  proto- 
plasm to  that  of  types  characteristic  of  all  the  grand  divi- 
sions, the  vertebrates  only  excepted.  We  are  authorized  to 
conclude  that  the  time  during  which  the  most  ancient  fos- 
siliferous rocks  were  deposited  was  short,  because  we  can 
judge  of  it  from  their  thickness,  which  is  much  inferior  to 
that  of  the  subsequent  strata.  Therefore,  but  a  comparatively 
short  space  of  time  was  required  for  the  modifications  by 
virtue  of  which  the  first  living  forms  produced  the  principal 
grand  divisions.  The  Lower  Silurian  epoch  was  one  of  rapid 
transformations,  of  active  morphogenesis,  of  intensive  muta- 
tions. If  we  wished  to  suppose  that  these  were  caused  by 
the  Darwinian  mechanism  of  slow  accumulations  of  minute 
variations,  we  would  be  obliged  to  throw  back  the  origin  of 


62  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

life  into  an  epoch  inconceivably  beyond  the  most  ancient 
geologic  epoch  now  known. 

"  In  the  same  way,  as  other  paleontologists  have  ob- 
served,— among  whom  is  Dr.  Charles  A.  White, — the  extraor- 
dinary flora  of  the  carboniferous  epoch  developed  abruptly. 
We  know  nothing  or  but  very  little  of  the  floras  that  pre- 
ceded it.  Its  appearance  and  its  extinction  were  sudden. 

'''  We  might  multiply  these  remarks  relative  to  the  abrupt 
explosions  of  creation  in  living  things.  Here  is  another. 
The  dinosaurian  lizards  that  abounded  throughout  the  sec- 
ondary epoch,  forming,  indeed,  the  dominant  animal  type, 
show  an  extreme  variety  taken  from  any  point  of  view. 
There  were  some  gigantic  ones,  like  Brontosaurus,  having 
a  mass  that  was  certainly  equal  to  that  of  four  or  five  ele- 
phants; others  of  small  stature,  not  larger  than  a  domestic 
fowl.  The  group  included  carnivora  and  herbivora,  aquatic 
species  and  terrestrial  species,  quadrupeds,  and  bipeds  quite 
similar  to  birds,  except  as  to  the  faculty  of  flight.  By  the 
variety  of  their  types  of  organization,  they  form,  as  aptly 
stated  by  Frederick  A.  Lucas,  a  sort  of  epitome  of  the  class  of 
reptiles.  Now,  their  appearance  and  differentiation  were  com- 
paratively abrupt  and  sudden  phenomena.  It  does  not  seem 
probable  that  they  were  formed  by  the  mechanism  of  natural 
selection,  and  that  they  were  destroyed  because  of  their 
inferiority  to  other  species  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

"  We  arrive  at  similar  conclusions  from  an  examination 
of  the  first  placental  mammals.  They  appeared  abruptly  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Tertiary  period ;  they  assumed  a  variety 
of  forms  almost  as  numerous  as  those  of  the  mammals  of 
to-day,  and  they  finally  disappeared."  12 

L.  P.  Gratacap,  in  a  paper  on  "  Biological  Crises,"  says : 
"  Assuming  a  great  age  for  this  development  [reference  is 
to  the  faunal  basins  of  the  Lower  Carboniferous],  the  expres- 


u  A.  Dastre,  Article  on  the  New  Theory  of  the  Origin  of  the  Species, 
Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1510. 


PHYSICAL  EFFECTS— BIOLOGIC  63 

sion  of  suddenness  is  not  unwarranted  in  referring  to  them. 
There  is  certainly  slender  suggestion  in  the  Devonian  of 
such  large  and  opulent  supplies  of  crinoidal  life.  The 
'  biological  crisis  '  they  present  is  not  simply  apparent.  It 
is  real."  13 

New  species  arise  from  an  old  stock,  not  by  continuous 
and  slow  changes,  but  suddenly.  The  genius  of  evolution 
seems  to  be  seeking  that  mystic  cause ;  the  modifying  effects 
of  external  circumstances  due  to  the  various  phenomena  con- 
nected with  this  belted  canopy  hypothesis  rounds  out  the 
whole  scheme. 

In  a  manner  never  dreamt  of  in  the  philosophy  of 
Lamarck,  physical  conditions  enter  into  the  problem  of  evo- 
lution, evolving,  as  it  were,  a  new  evolution.  As  stated  above, 
the  present  hypothesis  presents  the  causes  which  stimulated 
the  individual,  or  perhaps  whole  colonies,  to  become  mutants. 

According  to  De  Yries'  hypothesis,  the  degree  of  muta- 
bility is  dependent  upon  external  life  conditions.  Our  new 
hypothesis  presents  the  greatest  variety  of  these.  As  each 
canopy  overspread  the  earth,  the  whole  environment  was 
changed.  Climate  was  changed  and  food  supply.  The  qual- 
ity of  the  light  was  altered.  Absorption  of  the  red  rays 
of  the  solar  spectrum  took  place.  The  content  of  the  air  and 
its  density  were  altered.  The  pull  of  gravity  from  above 
caused  a  loss  of  weight.  Waters  were  impregnated.  Sym- 
pathetic volcanic  action  caused  by  the  disarrangement  of  the 
tidal  uplift  occurred.  Land  connections  or  land  bridges  in 
the  polar  regions  partially  laid  bare  by  the  rush  of  waters 
towards  the  equator  facilitated  geographical  migration,  etc., 
etc.  All  these  and  many  more  disturbances  went  to  make  up 
quite  a  budget  of  altered  external  conditions.  These  produced 
great  changes  in  life  already  existent,  and  when  a  canopy 
system  fell,  extermination  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  readap- 


18  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxviii,  No.  4,  p.  234. 


64  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

tation  of  the  survivors,  followed.  Mutation  under  such  con- 
ditions was  necessary;  it  meant  natural  preservation.  In 
this  way  the  single  steps  of  evolution  were  brought  about. 
The  survival  of  the  fittest  meant  the  survival  of  those  indi- 
viduals or  species  best  fitted  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new 
conditions.  Evolution  is  at  a  comparative  standstill  since  the 
Glacial  age,  for  the  reason  that  physical  nature  has  been  in 
a  like  quiescent  state. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DENSITY  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  AND  OTHER 
PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA 

LAM  ABC  K  gives  the  following  as  a  definition  of  species: 
"  A  species  is  a  collection  of  similar  individuals  which  are 
perpetuated  by  generation  in  the  same  condition  as  long  as 
their  environment  has  not  changed  sufficiently  to  bring  about 
variation  in  their  habits,  their  character,  and  their  forms." 

Herbert  Spencer  says :  "  The  direct  action  of  the  medium 
was  the  primordial  factor  of  organic  evolution." 

The  botanist  Sachs  asserts :  "  A  far  greater  portion  of 
the  phenomena  of  life  is  called  forth  by  external  influences 
than  one  formerly  ventured  to  assume.  Every  phenomenon 
of  life  arises  from  two  factors :  on  the  one  hand  from  the 
structure  transmitted  from  the  mother  organism,  and  on  the 
other  from  external  forces  working  on  this  structure." 

This  truth  is  aptly  illustrated  by  the  following  experi- 
ment :  If  a  radium  tube  of  proper  strength  be  suspended  in 
water  containing  tadpoles,  this  first  stage  of  the  common 
frog  is  prolonged,  but  eccentricities  of  growth  occur  and 
monsters  are  produced.1 

Another  striking  demonstration  is  found  in  the  external 
anatomy  of  the  celebrated  trout  which  was  introduced  into 
New  Zealand.  In  this  case  the  number  of  pyloric  appendages 
about  the  stomach  augmented  rapidly,  and  even  the  form 
and  the  size  of  the  animal  changed.  This  all  took  place 
quickly,  and  it  shows  the  potent  effects  of  environment. 
When  Nature  is  stimulated  by  sufficient  causes  it  is  capable 
of  transforming  animals,  we  might  say,  suddenly. 


1  Robert  H.   Bradbury,   "Radium   and   Radio- Activity  in   General," 
The  Franklin  Institute  Journal,  vol.  clix,  No.  3,  March,  1905. 

5  65 


66  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

But  in  this  age  Nature  is  not  stimulated  to  this  degree, 
hence  it  is  an  age  of  quiescence.  Yet  this  is  the  age  which, 
according  to  the  Doctrine  of  Uniformity,  should  show  the 
greatest  changes,  for  it  is  an  age  of  complex  organisms.  The 
possibilities  for  a  complex  or  old  form  to  undergo  changes 
cannot  be  questioned.  The  complex  is  more  easily  deranged 
than  the  simple.  Why,  then,  do  forms  not  change  in  this 
present  age  ?  Plainly,  Nature  is  not  stimulated  by  sufficient 
causes. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  variation  was  at  one  time  more 
active  with  each  species  because  forms  were  younger.  In 
fact,  such  an  argument  only  strengthens  our  position,  for 
the  above  reasoning  shows  us  that  the  further  we  get  away 
from  simple  forms,  the  greater  are  the  varieties,  hence, 
plainly,  the  causes  which  stimulated  Nature  when  she  was 
young  must  have  been  very  pronounced. 

Natural  selection  is  always  ready  to  make  use  of  adapted 
variations.  Thus,  the  gull  fed  on  corn  will  develop  a  gizzard. 
The  wild  duck  when  tamed  will  differ  from  the  same  species 
in  the  length  of  wing.  The  green  frogs  taken  from  the 
forest  and  placed  in  colorless  surroundings  become  sombre 
gray.  But  these  examples  do  not  become  "  fixed  " — that  is, 
their  biological  associations  have  not  been  sufficiently  changed 
to  cause  them  to  develop  into  new  animals — and  the  sombre 
frog  replaced  in  the  bright  green  foliage  soon  regains  his 
former  color.  Changes  resulting  from  age-producing  canopy 
falls  were  of  a  more  serious  and  permanent  character. 

Nature  apparently  has  some  pretty  large  blanks,  and  it 
must  have  taken  correspondingly  great  physical  changes  to 
bridge  these  chasms.  The  present  hypothesis  reveals  the 
most  powerful  physical  agencies  ever  dreamt  of  in  the  philos- 
ophy of  man,  therefore  it  is  best  fitted  to  cope  with  the 
conditions. 

James  D.  Dana  says,  speaking  of  these  blanks : 

"  One  of  these  is  the  apparently  sudden  appearance  of 


DENSITY  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  67 

plants  of  the  tribe  of  Angiosperms,  the  most  common  kind  of 
Kecent  time,  in  the  Lower  Cretaceous ;  another,  the  still  more 
remarkably  abrupt  introduction  of  ordinary  or  placental 
Mammals  as  successors  to  the  Marsupials  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Tertiary;  another,  the  introduction  of  well- 
characterized  Fishes,  without  the  discovery  of  their  pre- 
cursors." 2  Such  gaps  are  of  course  every  day  being  lessened 
by  the  discoveries  of  intermediate  links,  but  if  correctly 
balanced,  there  is  still  a  very  wide  interval  in  the  chain  of 
life  that  physical  environment  alone  can  account  for. 

Again,  the  destruction  of  vast  horizons  at  the  end  of  the 
ages  speaks  volumes.  Dana  describes  the  fact  in  these  words : 

"  This  sweeping  from  the  world  of  so  large  a  part  of  its 
life,  and  especially  that  of  Mesozoic  characteristics,  was  a 
much-needed  preparation  for  the  era  of  the  '  Reign  of  Mam- 
mals.' It  was  an  opportunity  for  the  '  survival  of  the 
fittest '  on  a  grand  scale ;  that  is,  the  survival  of  those  species 
that  could  withstand  the  special  causes  of  destruction,  and  of 
the  many  that  were  out  of  harm's  way.  The  exterminations 
were  the  removals  of  hindrances  to  progress.  The  survival  of 
the  fittest  and  of  the  lucky  ones,  while  not  directly  species- 
making,  was  the  origin  of  new  associations  in  continental 
and  oceanic  life ;  that  is,  of  new  faunas  and  new  floras  over 
the  world,  in  which,  under  the  modified  geographical  and 
physical  conditions,  the  elements  existed  for  further  change 
and  progress,"  3 

One  of  the  potent  physical  changes  which  would  have 
caused  a  general  extermination  at  the  end  of  an  age  would 
have  been  a  fluctuation  in  the  density  of  the  atmosphere. 
It  has  been  facetiously  said  that  the  Dinosaur  of  the  species 
of  Triceratops  died  of  its  big  head.  Many  a  true  word  has 
been  spoken  in  jest,  and  this  is  not  one  of  the  least  of  the 


2  Manual  of  Geology,  4th  ed.,  p.  1031. 
8  Ibid.,  p.  878. 


68  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

many.  "  A  head  of  one  of  these  has  been  found  more  than 
six  feet  long  and  four  feet  wide,  and  another  over  eight  feet 
long.'7  4  Every  skeleton  is  the  solution  of  a  problem  in 
mechanics,  to  wit,  the  problem  of  carrying  a  given  weight 
and  of  adaptation  to  a  given  mode  of  life.  Thus  often  a 
variation  in  condition  has  proved  fatal  to  a  whole  race. 
Elephas  ganesa,  a  species  of  mammoth  found  in  Pliocene 
deposits  of  the  Sidwalik  Hills,  India,  had  tusks  twelve  feet 
nine  inches  long  and  two  feet  two  inches  in  circumference. 
It  is  a  mystery  how  these  animals  ever  carried  them,  owing 
to  their  enormous  size  and  leverage. 

Another  one  of  the  creatures  that  came  to  its  end  through 
its  big  head  was  Dinotherium  giganteum.  This  animal  was 
of  elephantine  proportions,  and  lived  in  the  Miocene.  It 
was  characterized  by  an  enormous  head,  over  six  feet  long, 
and  unquestionably  it  labored  under  great  mechanical  dis- 
advantage in  lifting  its  immense  weight  in  the  process  of 
mastication.  It  can  be  seen,  then,  how  any  change  in  the 
density  of  the  atmosphere  directly  influenced  its  chances  in 
the  struggle  for  life. 

Again,  such  great  and  necessarily  sluggish  brutes  as 
Brontosaurus  and  Diplodocus,  with  their  tons  of  flesh  to 
carry,  and  their  small  heads  and  feeble  teeth,  were  obviously 
reared  in  circumstances  that  must  have  been  easy  for  them, 
as  they  were  unfitted  to  serve  in  any  strenuous  struggle  for 
existence.  The  peculiar  make-up  of  these  animals  has  a 
meaning  that  may  now  be  understood.  The  great  ground 
sloths,  the  Mylodons,  Megatheres,  and  their  allies,  are  another 
case  in  point;  they  became  extinct  when  the  conditions 
changed. 

These  are  only  instances  taken  at  random.  Geology 
reveals  the  fact  that  in  the  past  our  earth  has  been  peopled 
with  huge  creatures.  Plant  life  also  was  very  different  then 


4Le  Conte,  Geo.,  5th  ed.,  p.  518. 


DENSITY  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  69 

from  now.  Grasses  and  ferns  were  as  large  as  our  trees. 
Everything  was  so  gigantic  that  plant  and  animal  life  seemed 
fairly  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  production  of  monstrous 
growths.  There  was  a  reason  for  all  this.  Was  it  not  the 
greater  density  of  the  atmosphere  ?  Geologists  say  that  dur- 
ing certain  ages,  especially  the  Carboniferous,  the  air  was 
very  heavy  and  excessively  damp.  But  why  was  it  heavy 
and  damp? 

Explanations  are  not  necessary.  It  is  understood  that 
the  belts  as  they  descended  formed  canopies  which  in  turn 
pressed  downward  on  the  upper  air,  materially  increasing  the 
density  and  weight  of  the  atmosphere  itself.  One  of  the 
secondary  results  was  that  oxygenation  was  freer.  A  candle 
burns  brighter  in  a  condensed  atmosphere,  as  seen  in  the 
caissons  where  the  laborer  works  under  pressure.  The  effect 
of  all  this  upon  life  was  to  foster  gigantic  growths.5 

The  increased  buoyant  power  of  the  atmosphere  was  also 
derived  from  another  cause,  to  wit:  In  opposition  to  ter- 
restrial gravity  the  contrary  attraction  of  the  annular  system 
diminished  the  weight  in  a  notable  proportion.  There  must 
have  been  a  zone  where  bodies  were  attracted  equally  from 
above  and  below. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  since  the  fossil  impress  of  rain- 
drops in  the  past  geological  ages  are  such  as  would  be  made 
by  our  modern  storms,  therefore  the  atmosphere  of  these 
periods  must  have  been  of  a  like  density  to  our  own.  This 
argument  seems  to  overlook  the  increased  buoyancy.  Prob- 
ably these  drops  were  heavier  and  therefore  had  a  greater 
penetrating  power,  yet  on  the  whole  why  should  we  say  this  ? 
There  was  nothing  in  the  conditions  to  cause  their  form  to 
differ  radically  from  those  of  to-day,  and  if  they  were 
heavier  the  increased  buoyancy  of  the  atmosphere  would 
have  neutralized  the  results. 


'"Alpha  and  Omega,"  pp.  144,  145. 


70  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

The  increased  buoyancy  must  have  been  specially  favor- 
able at  times  to  large  bird  and  insect  life,  and  the  conditions 
in  general  to  a  cryptogamic  and  gymnospermous  flora.  But 
these  same  conditions  must  have  been  alike  adverse  to  the 
well-being  of  the  higher  order  of  flowering  plants,  and  of  the 
quick-breathing  animals.  Of  course  birds  come  under  this 
last  capitation,  but  the  winged  denizens  of  the  air  in  the 
early  paleontologic  ages  were  of  a  different  character  from 
their  posterity,  and  then  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  during 
certain  geological  periods  the  condensed  oxygen  of  the  atmos- 
phere took  the  place  of  the  miasmatic  influence  of  other 
periods. 

The  dragons  of  the  air  which  soared  in  ancient  times, 
like  the  Roc  of  Arabian  romance,  were  not  able  to  survive 
the  changes,  which  were  to  them  of  vital  moment.  Ptero- 
dactyles,  computed  to  have  had  a  spread  of  wing  of  over 
twenty  feet,  perished  in  great  numbers.  Their  battered  and 
broken  bones  are  found  in  the  graveyard  of  the  rocks.  "  At 
least  two  Pterodactyles  are  found  in  the  Oxford  clay,  known 
from  more  or  less  fragmentary  remains  or  isolated  bones; 
just  as  they  occur  in  the  Kimeridge  clay,  Purbeck  limestone, 
Wealden  sandstones,  and  especially  in  newer  Secondary 
rocks,  named  Gault,  Upper  GTreensand,  and  Chalk,  in  the 
southeast  of  England.''  6  A  thousand  of  these  bones  taken 
from  the  Cambridge  Greensand  are  now  in  the  Woodwardian 
Museum  of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Seeley  draws 
attention  to  the  fact  that  these  were  mostly  all  gathered  dur- 
ing two  or  three  years. 

This  gives  us  some  idea  of  their  abundance  in  the  days 
when  their  outstretched  pinions  enabled  them  to  seek  the  air 
for  their  safety.  But  how  long  did  this  safety  endure  ? 
When  the  canopy  disintegrated  the  atmosphere  was  released 
from  the  superincumbent  burden  and  the  sustaining  power 


e  H.  G.  Seeley,  "  Dragons  of  the  Air,"  p.  33. 


DENSITY  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  71 

of  the  air  was  gone.7  Thus  the  chapter  of  these  great  birds 
was  closed  forever.  The  ostrich  and  the  recently  extinct 
moas  of  New  Zealand  are  survivors  of  a  late  annular  or 
canopy  fall  that  have  been  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  a 
terrestrial  existence.  Deprived  of  their  power  of  flight, 
they  have  become  the  fleet-footed  creature  which  "  scorneth 
the  horse  and  his  rider."  Nature  flung  away  the  wings,  as 
she  always  does  with  every  part  of  a  skeleton  which  is  not 
vital.  In  New  Zealand  the  skeleton  of  the  Dinornis  ele- 
phantopus  from  the  Post-Pliocene,  and  in  Madagascar  the 
bones  of  another  huge  wingless  bird,  the  ^Epiornis  maximus, 
are  but  instances  taken  at  random,  which  show  how  this  class 
of  beings  existed  for  a  time  and  then  perished.  Nature 
changed  their  organisms,  but  as  the  altered  conditions  of 
Kfe  were  too  radical,  she  could  not  save  them  from  ultimate 
extinction. 

The  great  size  of  some  of  the  Devonian  and  Carbonifer- 
ous insects  is  another  indication  of  the  denser  atmosphere. 
Dana  says :  "  A  spread  of  wing  exceeding  two  feet  is  a 
size  now  existing  only  in  large  bats  and  birds."  8  The  infer- 
ence is  obvious. 

The  consensus  of  geological  opinion  is  that  the  atmos- 
phere must  originally  have  differed  in  its  constituents  from 
its  present  condition.  Planetesimal  dust  and  gaseous  emana- 
tions entering  the  air  belt  would  largely  account  for  this 
phenomenon.  Canopy  formation  and  decline  produced  at 
different  times  and  in  different  ways  divers  conditions. 
These  conditions  are  at  the  root  of  the  process  of  evolution. 
De  Vries'  theory  is  the  key;  the  lock  in  which  it  turns  is 
set  forth  in  this  present  hypothesis.  Little  and  great  physi- 
cal differences,  little  and  great  changes,  simply  meant  adap- 
tion, adjustment,  or  extinction. 


7  A  calamity  of  this  nature  appears  from  the  evidence  to  have  oc- 
curred in  the  Cretaceous  era  of  Mesozoic  time. 
"Manual  of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  p.  721. 


72  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

As  an  illustration  of  the  influence  of  a  very  slight  change 
in  the  atmospheric  content,  it  is  remarked  that  ferns  and 
monocotyledons  are  scarce  in  comparison  with  dicotyledons 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Dryness  and  rarity  of  the  atmos- 
phere, less  pressure,  heat,  and  carbon  dioxide,  being  the 
assigned  cause. 

An  important  result  of  Langley's  bolometric  investiga- 
tion is  the  discovery  that  the  earth's  atmosphere  exerts  a 
selective  absorption  to  a  remarkable  degree,  keeping  back 
an  immense  proportion  of  blue  and  green.  It  is  postulated 
that  our  atmosphere  has  varied  a  great  deal  in  the  past,  and 
so  must  have  exerted  a  great  effect  on  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  these  bygone  ages.  The  fact  is,  the  unveiled  sun  is  blue.9 
Our  atmosphere  now  stops  the  shortest  wave-lengths,  the 
ultra-violet,  and  it  is  said  that  scarcely  sixty  per  cent,  of 
the  solar  rays  penetrate  to  the  earth's  surface.  Has  it  always 
been  so  ?  Probably — yea,  we  can  almost  say  with  certainty — 
there  have  been  ages  in  the  past  when  the  selective  absorption 
was  even  more  pronounced  than  now. 

The  spectra  of  Saturn,  and  Jupiter  show  the  distinctive 
dark  line  in  the  red  (wave-length  618).  This  is  an  unmis- 
takable indication  of  aqueous  absorption.10  Tyndall  says 
that,  "  regarding  the  earth  as  a  source  of  heat,  I  estimate 
that  at.  least  10  per  cent,  of  its  heat  is  intercepted  within 
ten  feet  of  the  surface.  This  single  fact  suggests  the  enor- 
mous influence  which  this  newly-developed  property  of  aque- 
ous vapor  must  have  in  the  phenomena  of  meteorology."  n 

Experiments  have  been  made  at  the  laboratory  in  the 
Catacombs  on  the  effect  of  darkness  upon  animals.  The 
crustaceans  ( Gammarus  Huviatilis)  changed  as  follows : 
The  gray  pigment  disappeared  entirely.  The  organs  of 


9  A.  M.  Clerke,  "  History  of  Astronomy  During  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury," 3d  ed.,  pt.  ii,  chap,  v,  p.  278. 

10  Ibid.,  pt.  ii,  chap,  viii,  p.  368. 

11 "  Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion,"  6th  ed.,  Lect.  xiii,  pp.  380-381. 


DENSITY  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERE  73 

smell,  touch,  and  taste  showed  a  marked  hypertrophy  at  the 
end  of  a  few  months,  and  their  length  increased  gradually 
until  their  dimensions  tripled.  Again,  in  the  aquarium 
building  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  just  over  the  laboratory 
in  the  Catacombs,  experiments  were  made  of  a  reverse  nature, 
and  the  Proteus  commenced  to  assume  a  color;  at  first  this 
was  light,  but  it  ended  in  a  violet  black,  with  occasional  small 
yellow  patches.12 

Most  of  the  dinosaurs,  owing  to  their  great  eye-sockets, 
are  thought  to  have  had  nocturnal  habits,  yet  possibly  this 
was  a  result  of  physical  conditions.  The  Reptilian  age  may 
have  been  characterized  by  a  dense  dark  canopy  that  admitted 
the  passage  of  only  a  little  light.  The  flora  of  the  period  also 
points  to  this  conclusion.  Instances  such  as  these  could  be 
added  indefinitely,  but  all  that  is  required  is  to  show  that 
variation  in  the  quality  and  quantity  of  light  would  have 
exerted  a  great  influence  on  life  in  general.  It  may  be  well 
to  add  that  at  times  of  darkness,  like  the  ones  we  have  just 
pictured,  open  zones  existed  at  the  poles,  where  no  doubt 
certain  species  that  could  not  have  existed  without  light  sur- 
vived the  ordeal. 

Clouds  are  more  translucent  than  transcalent,  hence  light 
rays,  in  the  days  of  the  canopy,  reached  the  earth's  surface 
to  a  far  greater  degree  than  the  heat  rays,  though  those  which 
did  come  through  were  boxed  in,  as  it  were,  since  radiation 
into  space  was  largely  intercepted.  Thus  to  a  great  extent 
there  was  a  complete  reversal  of  present  conditions. 

The  effects  of  heat  and  cold  on  the  process  of  evolution 
cannot  be  questioned;  however,  a  few  illustrations  will  not 
be  out  of  place.  "  It  has  been  suspected,"  says  the  Scientific 
American,  "that  temperature  changes  and  new  environments 
might  have  something  to  do  with  the  origin  of  species,  and  the 
experiment  has  been  tried  of  breeding  butterflies  at  various 


32  Scientific  American,  vol.  xc,  No.  17. 


74  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

degrees  of  heat.  Dr.  M.  Standfuss,  of  Zurich,  has  done  some 
very  extensive  work  along  this  line,  producing  arctic  and 
tropical  varieties  as  well  as  intermediate  forms  by  raising 
the  butterflies  in  heated  or  cooled  boxes.  It  is  claimed  that 
butterflies  thus  reared  are  not  fixed  species  and  will  not 
breed  true.  In  one  case,  however,  Standfuss  has  apparently 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  fixed  species  by  this  treatment."  13 

Another  article  in  a  later  number  of  the  same  paper 
contains  the  following  notice :  "  Prof.  Max  Standfuss  has 
for  years  been  propagating  butterflies  and  moths  under  arti- 
ficial temperature  conditions.  He  has  taken  the  eggs  of 
middle  European  moths,  for  example,  and  bred  them  at  very 
low  temperatures,  and  obtained  varieties  of  that  same  middle 
European  moth  found  only  in  Arctic  regions.  Similarly, 
eggs  of  the  middle  European  moths,  hatched  at  very  high 
temperatures,  produce  varieties  that  are  to  be  found  only  in 
tropical  countries.  Furthermore,  by  changing  the  tempera- 
tures he  has  obtained  varieties  which  have  existed  but  are 
now  extinct.'7  14 

Climatic  influences  may  have  also  been  largely  aided  in 
their  work  by  secondary  causes.  Thus  it  is  well  known  that 
the  gorilla  does  not  thrive  when  removed  from  his  native 
miasmatic  swamps.  The  effluvia  of  decaying  vegetation  and 
the  humid  reeking  atmosphere  seem  necessary  to  his  very 
existence.  Again,  in  certain  localities  in  our  American 
tropics  a  rich  gray  moss  is  found  growing  luxuriously;  it 
is  an  aerial  plant,  and  yet  it  does  not  thrive  if  removed  into 
a  region  of  pure  air;  indeed,  it  seems  to  imbibe  something 
from  the  surrounding  swamps.  It  is  not  carbonic  acid  gas, 
the  chief  food  of  plants,  nor  is  it  nitrogen;  all  we  know  is 
that  the  element  which  this  plant  requires  is  found  in  that 
murky  atmosphere,  and  that  it  is  deadly  to  human  life. 
Moisture  and  heat  alone  will  not  account  for  it. 

13  Vol.  xcv,  No.  10,  Sept.  8,  1906. 

14  Ibid.,  vol.  xcv,  No.  15,  Oct.  13,  1906. 


CHAPTER  VII 

VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE 

ALL  who  possess  any  knowledge  whatever  of  geology 
know  that  in  the  past  eras  meteorological  conditions  differed 
radically  from  those  extant.  However,  as  this  work  is  for 
the  general  reader  as  well  as  the  specialist,  and  as  all  have 
not  been  schooled  in  the  workings  of  nature,  a  few  facts 
relative  to  what  is  really  known  of  the  past  climates  will 
be  in  order.  Consideration  of  these  same  facts  naturally 
stimulates  the  mind  to  inquire  as  to  the  cause  of  these  won- 
derful variations,  and  every  little  detail  that  helps  is  wel- 
comed. Thus,  even  though  the  hypothesis  that  the  earth  has 
cooled  from  a  molten  condition  is  thoroughly  discredited,  it 
would  seem  natural  if  the  records  of  the  past  showed  that 
from  age  to  age  the  climate  was  gradually  cooling,  for  the 
planetesimal  hypothesis,  now  generally  accepted,  postulates 
a  condition  of  heat  brought  about  by  gravitational  settling. 
Probably,  however,  this  was  in  the  remote  'days  before 
geological  time  dawned,  for  the«  fact  remains,  the  records  of 
the  science  do  not  show  this  gradual  cooling.  While  it  is  not 
purposed  to  arrange  the  quotations  which  follow  in  their 
geological  sequence,  still  they  may  be  read  with  this  point  in 
mind.  The  reader's  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  glacial 
ages  frequently  followed  periods  of  luxuriant  growth. 

James  D.  Dana  says :  "  Using  the  facts  from  the  rela- 
tions of  existing  plants  to  climate — that  Ferns  and  Lycopods 
thrive  best  in  tropical  and  temperate  latitudes,  and  Equiseta 
in  temperate — it  is  inferred  from  the  occurrence  of  coal- 
plants  of  each  of  these  groups  in  all  latitudes  to  the  Arctic 
regions  that  the  climate  of  the  globe  in  the  Carbonic  era 
was  nowhere  colder  than  the  modern  temperate  zone,  or 

75 


76  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

below  a  mean  temperature  of  60°  F.  Similarly,  the  occur- 
rence in  Spitzbergen  of  Corals  of  the  genera  Ltthostrotion, 
Cyathophyttunij  and  Syringopora,  and  of  some  species  of 
Brachiopods  of  twice  the  size  they  have  in  Europe,  seems  to 
show  that  the  waters  of  the  ocean  were  equally  temperate 
throughout.  As  to  excessive  heat  in  the  tropics,  we  have 
no  evidence,  since  the  common  Carboniferous  Brachiopods, 
Productus  semireticulaius,  P.  longispinus,  Athyris  subtilita, 
and  a  Bellerophon  near  B.  Urii,  are  found  in  the  Bolivian 
Andes."  * 

Again,  our  author  states :  "  During  the  Cretaceous 
period  a  warm  climate  still  prevailed  over  the  earth  even  to 
the  poles,  but  with  some  cooling  during  the  closing  part  of 
the  period;  and  in  North  America  with  a  great  Central 
Interior  Sea,  to  the  end  of  the  period,  the  climate-  was  moist. 
The  Cycads  and  associated  species  of  plants,  in  the  lower 
Cretaceous  beds  of  Greenland  indicate,  according  to  Heer, 
a  mean  temperature  of  21°  C.  to  22°  C.,  or  about  70°  F.  to 
72°  F.  This  temperature  is  that  of  Cuba.  The  facts  prove 
that  a  somewhat  similar  temperature  prevailed  at  the  same 
time  over  Spitzbergen  and  Alaska,  where  the  same  flora 
existed;  even  along  the  Atlantic  border,  at  least  as  far 
north  as  Long  Island;  in  the  region  of  the  Kootanie  beds 
in  Montana,  and  the  neighboring  part  of  British  America; 
and  over  more  western  North  America  to  Alaska."  2 

Professor  Arthur  Lake's  testimony  may  be  added  as 
follows :  "  The  recent  discoveries  of  fields  of  lignitic  and 
bituminous  coal  in  Alaska,  besides  their  great  economic 
importance  in  that  partially  treeless  and  much  besnowed 
region,  point  to  some  well-known  and  interesting  geological 
facts ;  viz.,  that  there  were  periods  in  the  world's  history  when, 
instead  of  the  present  ice  cap  and  treelessness,  the  Arctics 


1  Manual  of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  p.  711. 
*IUd.,  p.  872. 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  77 

were  a  region  clad  with  a  luxuriant,  temperate,  if  not 
tropical,  vegetation,  and  enjoying  a  temperate,  if  not  a  warm, 
climate.  There  may  or  may  not  have  been  an  open  Polar 
sea,  but  it  needed  no  Arctic  hardships  to  explore  it,  and  there 
certainly  was  no  ice  cap."  3 

T.  C.  Chamberlin  says :  "  It  appears  necessary  now 
to  accept  as  demonstrative  the  evidences  of  extensive  glacia- 
tion  in  India,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  in  the  midst  of 
the  later  coal-forming  stages  of  the  Paleozoic  era.  The 
glacial  beds  lie  even  between  coal  beds  of  Permian  or  Permo- 
Carboniferous  age;  while,  strangely  enough,  the  areas  of 
glaciation  approach,  and  even  overlap,  the  tropics  of  Cancer 
and  Capricorn.  And  yet  figs  and  magnolias  have  grown  in 
Greenland  since,  and  mild  polar  climates  are  as  well  authen- 
ticated after  as  before  this  climacteric  glaciation.  Less  com- 
plete evidences  from  China  and  Norway  imply  a  very  much 
earlier  glaciation,  falling  in  the  oldest  Cambrian,  or  perhaps 
even  pre-Cambrian,  times.  Still  more  recently,  similar 
evidences  of  early  Paleozoic  glaciation  in  South  Africa  have 
been  announced. 

"  The  climatic  student  seems  therefore  compelled  to 
face  oscillations  within  the  known  geologic  periods,  ranging 
from  sub-tropical  congeniality  within  the  polar  circles,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  glacial  conditions  in  low  latitudes,  on  the 
other,  and  these  in  alternating  succession;  while  neither  of 
these  oscillations  was  permitted  to  swim  across  the  narrow 
limital  lines  of  organic  endurance."  4 

Again  turning  to  Professor  Dana,  we  find  that  "  the 
cold  that  followed  the  Champlain  period,  or  that  of  the 
Reindeer  era  of  Lartet,  appears  to  have  brought  destruction 
among  the  northern  tribes  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  have  driven  southward  the  more  active  sur- 


8  "  Mines  and  Minerals,"  vol.  xxvi,  No.  9,  p.  401. 
4  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  xiv,  No.  5,  p.  366. 


78  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

vivors,  or  those  which  had  the  best  chance  for  escape.  The 
encasing  in  ice  of  huge  Elephants,  and  the  perfect  preserva- 
tion of  the  flesh,  shows  that  the  cold  finally  became  suddenly 
extreme,  as  of  a  single  winter's  night,  and  knew  no  relenting 
afterward.  The  existence  of  remains  of  the  Reindeer  in 
southern  France,  of  the  Marmot,  also  a  northern  species, 
and  of  the  Ibex  and  Chamois,  now  Alpine  species,  is  at- 
tributed by  Lartet  to  the  forced  migration  thus  occasioned. 
In  the  caves  of  Perigord  (Dordogne,  etc.)  the  bones  of  the 
Reindeer,  far  the  most  abundant  kind,  lie  along  with  those 
of  the  Cave  Hyena,  Cave  Bear,  Cave  Lion,  Elephant,  and 
Rhinoceros,  as  well  as  Horse  and  Aurochs."  5 

In  the  Monograph  on  the  Geology  of  the  Narragansett 
Basin  the  following  remarks  are  made  by  the  authors: 
"  We  may  first  note  that  the  deposits  formed  during  the 
times  represented  by  the  conglomerates  of  the  Carboniferous 
series  have  a  character  which  warrants  the  hypothesis  that 
they  are  to  a  considerable  extent  the  products  of  glacial 
action.  *  *  * 

"Although  there  are  instances  in  which  a  torrent  may 
accumulate  a  large  detrital  cone  composed  of  boulders  and 
pebbles,  I  know  of  no  geological  machinery  now  at  work  on 
the  earth's  surface,  or  which  can  reasonably  be  supposed  to 
have  operated  in  the  past,  except  glaciation,  that  is  competent 
to  produce  such  immense  masses  of  coarse  detritus  as  are 
contained  in  these  conglomerates,  or  bring  them  into  position 
where  water  action  can  effect  their  arrangement  into  beds. 
The  area  of  the  deposits  lying  on  the  two  sides  of  the  old 
Appalachian  axis  probably  now  exceeds  60,000  square  miles ; 
the  average  thickness  of  the  section  is  certainly  not  less  than 
2,500  feet;  so  that  the  amount  of  matter  of  a  prevailingly 
coarse  nature  which  was  laid  down  along  the  old  Appalachian 
ridge  in  a  period  apparently  of  no  great  duration  was  not 


5  Man.  of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  pp.  1007,  1008. 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  79 

less  than  20,000  cubic  miles,  and  probably  was  far  more  than 
that  amount.  *  *  * 

"  It  should  be  noted  that  the  pebbles  of  the  Carboniferous 
conglomerates,  especially  in  the  Narragansett  district,  show 
no  trace  of  glacial  scratches;  moreover,  they  generally  have 
a  rather  rounded  form  and  are  of  less  varied  size  than  those 
in  any  of  the  till  deposits  formed  during  the  last  Glacial 
period.  In  some  cases,  however,  they  seem  to  me  to  retain 
the  faceted  shape  which  is  so  characteristic  of  ice-made 
pebbles.  When  compared  with  the  pebbles  of  the  last  Glacial 
period,  which,  in  a  measure,  have  been  subjected  to  marine 
or  stream  action,  they  are  found  to  correspond  with  them 
in  all  essential  features,  except  when,  as  is  often  the  case, 
the  old  fragments  have  been  deformed  by  stresses  which  came 
upon  them  since  they  were  built  into  the  Carboniferous 
strata.  *  *  * 

"  In  no  way  save  by  glacial  work  does  it  seem  to  me 
possible  to  account  for  the  rapid  formation  of  the  great  mass 
of  pebbly  detritus  which  is  contained  in  these  beds.  It 
therefore  may  fairly  be  held  that  the  Carboniferous  period, 
in  this  district  at  least,  was  one  of  extensive  and  long-con- 
tinued glacial  action,  and  that  the  greater  part  of  the  section 
exhibited  in  the  basin  is  made  up  of  rocks  which  owe  their 
more  important  features  to  the  action  of  glaciation."  6 

Ernest  H.  L.  Schwartz,  who  made  a  geological  survey  of 
Cape  Colony  in  1896,  says:  "  "No  matter  how  good  the 
specimens  of  glaciated  boulders  and  the  photographs  of  ice- 
scored  floors,  that  came  home  from  India,  Australia,  or 
South  Africa,  no  one  would  believe  in  the  Permian  Ice  age. 
I  was  myself  skeptical  when  I  first  came  to  South  Africa, 
and  at  a  meeting  in  Cape  Town,  when  some  of  the  glaciated 
Dwyka  Conglomerate  pebbles  were  exhibited,  assisted  in 
recording  the  belief  that  there  was  in  these  scratches  no 
satisfactory  evidence  of  ice-action.  *  ' 

•Mono,  xxxiii,  pp.  64-67. 


80  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  In  the  field  it  is  different ;  there  the  evidence  is  over- 
whelming, as  I  was  soon  to  see  when  I  joined  the  Geological 
Survey.  *  *  * 

"  The  Dwyka  Conglomerate,  and  its  equivalent  in  Aus- 
tralia and  India,  is  too  well  known  now  to  require  description 
here,  but  I  have  introduced  the  account  of  the  part  which 
Mr.  Rogers  and  myself  played  in  the  elucidation  of  the 
problem  in  order  to  show  the  credentials  with  which  we  offer 
evidence  of  two  more  glacial  periods  in  South  Africa.  The 
evidence  of  each  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Rogers ;  the  evidence 
of  one,  probably  Devonian  in  age,  I  have  examined  in  the 
field;  the  other  is  probably  Archean,  and  although  I  have 
not  seen  the  glacial  beds  in  place,  the  specimens  which  Mr. 
Rogers  has  sent  me  form  ample  material  for  confirming  his 
interpretation.  *  *  * 

"  At  some  future  date  it  will  perhaps  be  established  that 
there  is  a  rhythmic  recurrence  of  glacial  conditions  in  sub- 
tropical and  even  tropical  countries,  and  we  shall  be  able  to 
date  the  rock  strata  according  to  the  positions  of  these  tills. 
In  Australia  they  have  two — the  Permian  or  Carbo-Permian, 
and  the  so-called  Cambrian  one,  which  is,  at  any  rate,  older 
than  the  Ordovician,  and  possibly  Algonkian.  We  have 
three  in  South  Africa,  the  oldest  of  which  may  be  equivalent 
to  the  older  of  the  two  Australian  ones.  *  *  * 

"  Sir  Andrew  Ramsay's  evidence  as  to  the  European 
Paleozoic  Ice  age,  and  the  character  of  the  striations  on  the 
stones,  is  admitted,  even  by  those  who  do  not  accept  his 
explanation,  to  be  strongly  suggestive."  7 

Alexander  Winchell  records  like  facts  in  the  following. 
He  says:  "  Some  of  the  most  salient  phenomena  attributed 
to  the  reign  of  glacier  ice  are  smoothed  and  striated  rock- 
surfaces,  and  accumulations  of  rounded  pebbles.  Precisely 
these  phenomena  have  been  detected  among  the  rocks  of  re- 


'  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  xiv,  No.  8,  pp.  683,  684,  689,  690, 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  81 

moter  ages  of  the  world's  history.  More  than  thirty  years  ago 
the  New  York  geologists  called  attention  to  the  smoothed 
surfaces  of  the  Medina  Sandstone  in  the  western  part  of  that 
State.  They  did  not  then  dare  to  utter  the  conjecture  that 
these  are  glaciated  surfaces;  though  recent  opinion  strongly 
inclines  in  that  direction.  Foreign  geologists  have  made 
similar  observations  in  numerous  other  formations.  In  the 
Miocene  System,  that  vast  Swiss  formation  known  as  the 
Molasse,  seems  to  be  but  an  older  bed  of  glacier  pebbles, 
extremely  similar  to  those  accumulated  upon  the  existing 
surface  along  the  slopes  and  flanks  of  the  Alps."  8 

Le  Conte  states :  "  The  Permo-Carbonif  erous  of  Aus- 
tralia, India,  South  Africa,  and  Brazil  all  contain  enormous 
glacial  deposits  and  other  evidences  of  glaciation.  Appar- 
ently Permian  glaciation  was  on  a  vaster  scale  than  that  of 
the  Pleistocene  in  the  northern  hemisphere."  9  He  also  says, 
speaking  of  the  late  period :  "  Of  alternations  of  colder  and 
warmer  periods  during  the  Glacial  epoch  there  are  evidences 
both  in  Europe  and  America."  10 

Again  William  North  Rice  says :  "  The  Quaternary 
period,  instead  of  being  brief  and  comparatively  simple,  has 
been  shown  to  be  of  long  duration  and  great  complexity.  It 
has  been  analyzed  into  a  succession  of  glacial  and  inter- 
glacial  epochs;  and,  from  the  vast  amount  of  erosion  in 
some  of  the  inter-glacial  epochs,  it  has  been  inferred  that  post- 
Glacial  time  is  very  short  in  comparison  with  inter-Glacial 
time."  n 

The  flora  and  fauna  of  a  region  show  how  the  climate 
has  changed ;  thus  G.  Frederick  Wright  says :  "  On  both 
continents,  at  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  period,  there  occurred 
a  remarkable  extinction  of  animals  which  is  doubtless  con- 


8 "  Sparks  from  a  Geologist's  Hammer,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  177-178. 
9Geo.,  5th  ed.,  p.  430. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  615. 

11  Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1648. 

6 


82  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

nected  with  the  advance  of  the  continental  ice-sheet.  Among 
these  we  may  mention  two  species  of  the  cat  family  as  large 
as  lions ;  four  species  of  the  dog  family,  some  of  them  larger 
than  wolves;  two  species  of  bears;  a  walrus,  found  in  Vir- 
ginia ;  three  species  of  dolphins  found  in  the  Eastern  States ; 
two  species  of  the  sea-cow,  found  in  Florida  and  South  Caro- 
lina; six  species  of  the  horse;  the  existing  South  American 
tapir ;  a  species  of  the  South  American  llama ;  a  camel ;  two 
species  of  bison;  three  species  of  sheep;  two  species  of  ele- 
phants and  two  of  mastodons;  a  species  of  Megatherium, 
three  of  Megalonyx,  and  one  of  Mylodon — huge  terrestrial 
sloths  as  large  as  the  rhinoceros,  or  even  as  large  as  elephants, 
which  ranged  over  the  Southern  States  to  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  Mylodon  as  far  as  the  Great  Lakes  and  Oregon. 

"  This  wondrous  assemblage  of  animals  became  extinct 
upon  the  approach  of  the  Glacial  period,  as  their  remains 
are  all  found  in  post-Pliocene  deposits.  The  intermingling 
of  forms  is  remarkable."  12 

Alexander  Winchell  tells  us  that  "  it  is  impossible  to 
refrain  from  speculating  on  the  nature  of  the  events  which 
resulted  in  the  burial  of  entire  mammoths  in  glacier-ice. 
That  the  climate  in  which  they  had  lived  was  not  tropical, 
like  that  of  Africa  or  India,  may  be  regarded  as  proved  by 
the  presence  of  the  fur  in  which  these  animals  were  clothed. 
That  it  was  not  similar  to  the  existing  climate  of  northern 
Siberia  is  apparent  from  the  consideration  that  such  a  climate 
would  not  yield  the  requisite  supply  of  vegetation  to  sustain 
their  existence.  More  especially  would  forest  vegetation  be 
wanting,  which  seems  to  have  been  designed  as  the  main 
reliance  for  proboscidians.  Northern  Siberia  must,  therefore,' 
have  possessed  a  temperate  climate."  13 


""The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  386.     "The  Geo- 
graphical Distribution  of  Animals,"  vol.  i,  p.   129. 

11  "Sparks  from  a  Geologist's  Hammer,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  243-244. 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  83 

On  the  same  line  as  all  this  testimony  the  great  Agassiz 
has  left  the  following  record :  "  It  is  my  belief/'  he  says, 
"  founded  upon  the  tropical  character  of  the  Fauna,  that  a 
much  milder  climate  then  prevailed  over  the  whole  northern 
hemisphere  than  is  now  known  to  it.  Some  naturalists  have 
supposed  that  the  presence  of  the  tropical  Mammalia  in  the 
Northern  Temperate  Zone  might  be  otherwise  accounted  for, 
— that  they  might  have  been  endowed  with  warmer  covering, 
with  thicker  hair  or  fur.  But  I  think  the  simpler  and  more 
natural  reason  for  their  existence  throughout  the  North  is 
to  be  found  in  the  difference  of  climate ;  and  I  am  the  more 
inclined  to  this  opinion  because  the  Tertiary  animals  gener- 
ally, the  Fishes,  Shells,  etc.,  in  the  same  regions,  are  more 
closely  allied  in  character  to  those  now  living  in  the  Tropics 
than  to  those  of  the  Temperate  Zones.  The  Tertiary  age 
may  be  called  the  geological  summer ;  we  shall  see,  hereafter, 
how  abruptly  it  was  brought  to  a  close.  *  *  * 

"  The  long  summer  was  over.  For  ages  a  tropical  climate 
had  prevailed  over  a  great  part  of  the  earth,  and  animals 
whose  home  is  now  beneath  the  Equator  roamed  over  the 
world  from  the  far  south  to  the  very  borders  of  the  Arctics. 
The  gigantic  quadrupeds,  the  Mastodons,  Elephants,  Tigers, 
Lions,  Hyenas,  Bears,  whose  remains  are  found  in  Europe 
from  its  southern  promontories  to  the  northernmost  limits  of 
Siberia  and  Scandinavia,  and  in  America  from  the  Southern 
States  to  Greenland  and  the  Melville  Islands,  may  indeed  be 
said  to  have  possessed  the  earth  in  those  days.  But  their 
reign  was  over.  A  sudden  intense  winter,  that  was  also  to 
last  for  ages,  fell  upon  the  globe;  it  spread  over  the  very 
countries  where  these  tropical  animals  had  their  homes,  and 
so  suddenly  did  it  come  upon  them  that  they  were  embalmed 
beneath  masses  of  snow  and  ice,  without  time  even  for  the 
decay  which  follows  death."  14 


""Geological  Sketches,"  pp.  205-206,  208. 


84  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Professor  Wright  quotes  from  the  Scientific  Papers  of 
Asa  Gray  15  and  records  his  own  views  of  the  past  climatic 
conditions  in  the  far  north  as  follows: 

"  Geologically  the  coal  beds  of  Greenland  are  much  later 
than  the  Carboniferous  period.  The  accompanying  plants 
indicate  that  some  of  them  belong  to  the  Upper  Cretaceous 
and  others  to  the  Middle  Tertiary  (Miocene).  *  *  * 

"  The  Tertiary  beds  in  this  region  bear  striking  witness 
to  the  changes  of  climate  which  the  region  has  experienced, 
and  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  lineal  connection  between  the 
present  flora  of  the  north  temperate  zone  and  the  ancient 
arctic  flora  of  Greenland.  During  the  middle  portion  of  the 
Tertiary  period  the  climate  of  north  Greenland  corresponded 
closely  with  that  which  now  exists  in  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina.  As  enumerated  by  Asa  Gray,  the  familiar  plants 
found  in  these  beds  comprise  '  magnolias,  sassafras,  hickories, 
gum  trees,  our  identical  southern  cypress  (for  all  we  can  see 
of  difference),  and  especially  sequoias — not  only  the  two 
which  obviously  answer  to  the  two  big  trees  now  peculiar  to 
California,  but  several  others;  they  equally  comprise  trees 
now  peculiar  to  Japan  and  China — three  kinds  of  gingko 
trees,  for  instance,  one  of  them  not  evidently  distinguishable 
from  the  Japan  species  which  alone  survives.  We  have  evi- 
dence not  merely  of  pines  and  maples,  birches,  lindens,  and 
whatever  characterize  the  temperate-zone  forests  of  our  era, 
but  also  of  particular  species  of  these  so  like  those  of  our  own 
time  and  country  that  we  may  fairly  reckon  them  as  ancestors 
of  several  of  ours.'  "  16 

Sir  Archibald  Geikie's  testimony  of  the  vicissitudes  of 
climate  is  that  "  in  Europe  and  North  America  a  tolerably 
sharp  demarcation  can  usually  be  made  between  the  Pliocene 
formations  and  those  now  to  be  described.  The  Crag  deposits 


15  Vol.  ii,  p.  227. 

"Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North  Atlantic,"  pp.  113-114. 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  85 

of  the  southeast  of  England,  as  we  have  seen,  show  traces  of 
a  gradual  lowering  of  the  temperature  during  later  Pliocene 
times,  and  the  same  fact  is  indicated  by  the  Pliocene  fauna 
and  flora  on  the  Continent  even  in  the  Mediterranean  basin. 
This  change  of  climate  continued  until  at  last  thoroughly 
Arctic  conditions  prevailed,  under  which  the  oldest  of  the 
Post-Tertiary  or  Pleistocene  deposits  were  accumulated  in 
northern  and  central  Europe,  and  in  Canada  and  the  northern 
part  of  the  United  States."  17 

In  a  foot-note  the  same  author  remarks :  "  That  a  glacial 
period  occurred  at  the  close  of  the  Cretaceous  period,  again 
at  the  end  of  the  Eocene  and  in  the  Miocene  (erratics  of 
Superga,  near  Turin),  has  been  regarded  by  some  geologists 
as  probable."  ls 

Chamberlin  and  Salisbury  tell  us  that :  "  In  the  upper 
division  of  the  Old  Red  sandstone  of  Great  Britain  there 
are  conglomerates  of  such  a  character  as  to  have  raised  a 
question  concerning  the  existence  of  glaciers  in  this  region  in 
Devonian  times.  The  conglomerates  contain  boulders  of  all 
sizes,  up  to  eight  feet  in  diameter.  While  the  smaller  stones 
are  usually  well  worn,  the  larger  ones  are  often  distinctly 
subangular.  All  sorts  of  durable  rock  are  represented.  The 
large  boulders  seem  not  to  have  come  in  from  distant  regions, 
but  some  of  the  smaller  stones  may  have  come  from  greater 
distances,  since  no  local  source  for  them  is  known.  Further- 
more, some  of  the  boulders  are  said  to  be  striated,  and  it  is 
believed  by  some  geologists  at  least  that  the  strisG  are  glacial. 
The  matrix  of  the  conglomerate  is  in  keeping  with  the 
hypothesis  that  ice  cooperated  in  its  making.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  were  then  much 
higher  than  now,  that  they  harbored  glaciers,  and  that  the 


"Text  Book  of  Geo.,  3d.  ed.,  pp.  1023-1024. 

™Ibid.,  note  3,  p.  979.  A.  V6zian,  Rev.  Sci.  xi  (1877),  p.  171; 
Schardt,  "Etudes  G6ologiques  sur  le  pays  d'Enhaut  Vaudois,"  Bull. 
Soc.  Vaud.  1884. 


86  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

bergs  to  which  the  glaciers  gave  origin  made,  or  helped  to 
make,  the  conglomerates  here  referred  to.  The  conglomerate 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  Lammermuir  Hills,  and  in  the  Silurian 
hills  of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  in  northern 
England."  19 

Heat  and  cold  certainly  seem  to  have  followed  each  other 
very  closely.  The  same  authors  say :  "  Taking  the  phe- 
nomena of  India,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  together,  they 
make  a  puzzling  combination.  If  the  chief  coal-beds  be  re- 
ferred to  the  Carboniferous  proper,  it  introduces  glacial  beds, 
and  a  great  floral  break,  into  the  midst  of  a  system  which  has 
usually  been  held  to  be  marked  by  great  uniformity  the  world 
over."  20 

Again,  these  authors  say :  a  Unwilling  as  geologists  were 
to  believe  that  there  was  a  glacial  period  at  this  early  stage 
of  the  earth's  history,  the  evidence  now  in  hand  is  over- 
whelming, and  a  glacial  period  in  Australia  in  the  late 
Carboniferous  or  Permian  period  must  be  regarded  as  a 
demonstrated  fact."  *  *  *  The  recurrence  of  the  boulder 
beds  points  to  the  repeated  recurrence  of  glacial  conditions, 
and  the  great  thickness  both  of  clastic  beds  and  of  the  in- 
cluded coal  point  to  the  great  duration  of  the  period  through 
which  the  several  glacial  epochs  were  distributed. 

"  These  remarkable  phenomena  are  not  local.  Counting 
Tasmania,  where  glacial  deposits  are  also  found,  the  Paleo- 
zoic glaciation  of  Australia  had  a  known  range  of  nearly  22° 
in  latitude  (42°  in  Tasmania  to  20°  30'  in  Queensland),  and 
about  35°  in  longitude  (west  from  137°  30'),  though  it  is 
not  known,  nor  perhaps  probable,  that  all  the  area  within 
these  limits  was  glaciated.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  to 
be  understood  that  the  phenomena  here  described  are  re- 
stricted to  high  altitudes;  rather  are  they  known  chiefly  at 
low  levels,  descending  in  some  places  nearly  to  the  sea.  The 


19Geo.,  vol.  ii,  p.  446. 
id.,  p.  602. 


VICISSITUDES  OF  CLIMATE  87 

altitude  of  this  region  is  not  only  low  now,  but  it  was  prob- 
ably low  during  glaciation,  as  shown  by  the  relation  of  the 
glacial  deposits  to  the  marine  beds.  Whatever  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  its  explanation,  therefore,  the  fact  of  a  long 
period  during  which  glacial  conditions  recurred  many  times 
must  be  accepted."  21 

James  Geikie  sums  up  in  a  few  paragraphs  the  general 
results  obtained  by  a  review  of  the  British  deposits.  His 
summary  shows  in  the  clearest  manner  the  remarkable  fluctu- 
ations of  climate  in  a  single  period.  It  is  as  follows: 

"  1.  Weybourn  Crag.  The  North  Sea  occupied  by  an 
Arctic  fauna. 

"  2.  Forest-Bed  of  Cromer.  Wider  extent  of  land-sur- 
face, the  southern  portion  of  the  North  Sea  a  broad  plain 
traversed  by  the  Rhine.  Climate  temperate. 

"  3.  Leda-Myalis  Bed.  Passage  from  temperate  to  boreal 
and  arctic  conditions.  Submergence  of  the  Rhenish  alluvial 
plain. 

"  4.  Arctic  Fresh-water  Bed.     Arctic  flora  in  England. 

"  5.  Lower  Boulder-clays.  Maximum  glaciation  of  the 
British  Islands:  mer  de  glace  flows  south  to  valley  of  the 
Thames ;  is  confluent  with  the  inland  ice  of  Scandinavia. 

"  6.  Interglacial  Beds.  (Fresh-water  alluvia,  peat,  etc., 
cave-deposits,  marine  beds.)  Britain  probably  continental; 
climate  at  first  cold,  then  temperate.  Submergence  ensued 
towards  close  of  the  period,  with  conditions  passing  from 
temperate  to  arctic. 

"  1.  Upper  Boulder-clay.  General  mer  de  glace,  con- 
fluent with  that  of  Scandinavia ;  it  did  not  flow  so  far  south 
as  that  of  preceding  glacial  epoch. 

"  8.  Interglacial  Beds.  (Fresh-water  alluvia,  peat,  etc. ; 
marine  deposits.)  Britain  probably  again  continental: 
climate  at  first  temperate  and  insular;  submergence  ensues 


nH>id.,  pp.  632-634. 


88  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

with  cold  climatic  conditions — Scotland  depressed  for  130 
feet  or  thereabout. 

"  9.  Ground-Moraines  and  Terminal  Moraines.  Major 
portion  of  Scottish  Highlands  covered  by  ice-sheet ;  local  ice- 
sheets  and  district  glaciers  in  Southern  Uplands  of  Scotland, 
and  in  mountainous  parts  of  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland. 
Icebergs  are  calved  at  mouths  of  Highland  sea-lochs ;  terminal 
moraines  dropped  upon  marine  deposits,  then  forming  (100- 
ft.  beach  in  Scotland). 

"  10.  Interglacial  Beds.  (Fresh-water  alluvia  with 
arctic  plants ;  lower  buried  forest  and  peat ;  Coarse-clays  and 
raised  beaches. )  Britain  again  continental ;  climate  at  first 
cold,  subsequently  becoming  temperate;  great  forests. 
Eventual  insulation  of  Britain ;  climate  humid,  and  probably 
colder  than  now. 

"11.  Mountain-\7alley  Moraines;  Corrie  Moraines.  In 
Scotland  these  in  some  places  rest  on  raised  beaches  (45-50 
ft.  above  sea)  ;  snow-line  at  2,500  ft. 

"12.  Upper  Buried  Forest ;  Alluvia,  etc.  He-elevation 
of  land,  to  what  extent  is  not  known ;  climate  temperate. 

"13.  Peat  overlying  '  upper  buried  forest 7 ;  low-level 
Raised  Beaches;  high-level  Corrie  Glaciers,  snow-line  at 
3,500  ft. ;  climate  colder  and  more  humid  than  now. 

"  14.  Final  retreat  of  sea  to  present  level;  decay  of  peat- 
bogs; disappearance  of  permanent  snow;  climate  drier  than 
during  preceding  stage  (13)."22 


22 "The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  421-422. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION 

DE  VRIES'  doctrine  of  evolution  advances  physical 
environment  and  conditions  to  first  place  in  the  chain  of 
cause  and  effect.  The  great  accelerations  noticed  in  the  de- 
velopment of  life,  spasmodically  as  it  were,  indicate  that  these 
conditions  were  radical,  and  it  is  imperative  that  the  source 
should  be  adequate.  The  first  cause  must  have  been  some- 
thing out  of  the  ordinary. 

It  is  postulated  that  the  canopy  at  times  belted  the  earth, 
even  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic  circle.  This  introduces  into 
the  polar  regions  three  powerful  factors,  light,  heat,  and  land 
connections.  Archibald  Geikie  says: 

"  The  climate  during  Tertiary  time  underwent  in  the 
northern  hemisphere  some  remarkable  changes.  Judging 
from  the  terrestrial  vegetation  preserved  in  the  strata,  we  may 
infer  that  in  England  the  climate  of  the  oldest  Tertiary 
periods  was  of  a  temperate  character,  but  that  it  became 
during  Eocene  time  tropical  and  subtropical,  even  in  the 
centre  of  Europe  and  North  America.  It  then  gradually 
grew  more  temperate,  but  flowering  plants  and  shrubs  con- 
tinued to  live  even  far  within  the  Arctic  circle,  where,  then 
as  now,  unless  the  axis  of  the  earth  has  meanwhile  shifted, 
there  must  have  been  six  sunless  months  every  year.  Grow- 
ing still  cooler,  the  climate  passed  eventually  into  a  phase  of 
extreme  cold,  when  snow  and  ice  extended  from  the  Arctic 
regions  far  south  into  Europe  and  North  America.  Since 
that  time  the  cold  has  again  diminished,  until  the  present 
thermal  distribution  has  been  reached."  1 

Again,  speaking  of  Greenland,  he  says :     "  One  of  the 


'Geo.,  3d  ed.,  p.  964. 

89 


90  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

most  remarkable  geological  discoveries  of  modern  times  has 
been  that  of  Tertiary  plant-beds  in  North  Greenland.  Heer 
has  described  a  flora  extending  at  least  up  to  70°  N.  lat., 
containing  137  species,  of  which  46  are  found  also  in  the 
central  European  Miocene  basins.  More  than  half  of  the 
plants  are  trees,  including  30  species  of  conifers  (Sequoia, 
Thujopsis,  tSalisburia,  etc.),  besides  beeches,  oaks,  planes, 
poplars,  maples,  walnuts,  limes,  magnolias,  and  many  more. 
These  plants  grew  on  the  spot,  for  their  fruits  in  various 
stages  of  growth  have  been  obtained  from  the  deposits.  From 
Spitzbergen  (78°  56'  K  lat.)  136  species  of  fossil  plants 
have  been  named  by  Heer.  But  the  latest  English  Arctic 
expedition  brought  to  light  a  bed  of  coal,  black  and  lustrous 
like  one  of  the  Paleozoic  fuels,  from  31°  45'  E".  lat.  It  is 
from  25  to  30  feet  thick,  and  is  covered  with  black  shales 
and  sandstones  full  of  land-plants.  Heer  notices  30  species, 
12  of  which  had  already  been  found  in  the  Arctic  Miocene 
zone.  As  in  Spitzbergen,  the  conifers  are  most  numerous 
(pines,  firs,  spruces,  and  cypresses),  but  there  occur  also  the 
Arctic  poplar,  two  species  of  birch,  two  of  hazel,  an  elm,  and 
a  viburnum.  In  addition  to  these  terrestrial  trees  and 
shrubs,  the  lacustrine  waters  of  the  time  bore  water-lilies, 
while  their  banks  were  clothed  with  reeds  and  sedges.  When 
we  remember  that  this  vegetation  grew  luxuriantly  within 
8°  15'  of  the  North  Pole,  in  a  region  which  is  now  in  darkness 
for  half  of  the  year,  and  almost  continuously  buried  under 
snow  and  ice,  we  can  realize  the  difficulty  of  the  problem  in 
the  distribution  of  climate  which  these  facts  present  to  the- 
geologist."  2 

The  difficulty  has  been  thoroughly  appreciated.  J.  W- 
Dawson  makes  this  acknowledgment  of  it.  He  says :  "  It 
is  difficult  to  account  for  these  vicissitudes  of  climate,  and 
much  controversy. exists  on  the  subject;  but  it  seems  certain 


d.,  pp.  1001-1002. 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION  91 

that  in  the  earlier  Tertiary  and  Cretaceous  periods,  for  ex- 
ample, the  supplies  of  heat  and  light  were  so  diffused  over 
the  earth  as  to  permit  the  growth  of  a  temperate  vegetation  in 
Greenland,  and  even  Spitzbergen."  3 

The  polar  regions  now  have  unremitted  light  for  six 
months  in  the  year,  but,  owing  to  the  climate,  this  energy  is 
wasted.  When  the  canopy  induced  greenhouse  conditions 
clear  up  to  the  Arctic  circle,  this  heat  was  wafted  over  the 
clear  space  of  the  north.  But  this  is  not  all  of  the  good 
which  it  did,  for  when  the  sun  sank  in  the  southern  sky  this 
marvellous  roof  caught  its  slant-wise  rays.  Holding  these 
in  its  embrace,  it  reflected  them  back  on  the  land,  which 
otherwise  was  a  land  of  darkness.  Sunlight  and  twilight 
must  therefore  have  endured  the  whole  twelve  months. 

Next  to  light,  the  importance  of  the  electric  stimulus 
should  be  considered.  Electricity  must  have  a  material  con- 
ductor. When  the  canopy  extended  to  the  Arctic  circle,  the 
conductor  was  spread  out  as  a  curtain,  and  the  frequency  and 
intensity  of  the  auroras  may  be  imagined.  Their  effect  as 
a  stimulant  to  plant-growth  cannot  be  questioned.  The 
Scientific  American  says : 

"  The  flora  of  the  north  polar  region  is  remarkable  for 
rapid  growth,  fertility,  and  brilliancy  of  coloring,  phenomena 
which  seem  incompatible  with  the  climate.  For  the  Arctic 
summer,  though  nightless,  is  very  short,  the  sun  is  low,  and 
its  rays  are  often  intercepted  by  fog  and  clouds,  so  that  it 
cannot  furnish  an  amount  of  light  and  heat  favorable  to  very 
rapid  growth. 

"  The  investigations  of  Prof.  Lemstrom,  of  Helsingfors, 
and  others,  tend  to  show  that  electricity  exerts  a  great  influ- 
ence on  the  growth  of  plants,  and  this  view  is  confirmed  by 
the  luxuriant  vegetation  of  the  zone  of  action  of  that  violent 
electrical  manifestation,  the  aurora  borealis.  Furthermore, 


8 "  Origin  of  the  World,"  p.  395. 


92  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

a  close  connection  has  been  found,  in  Finland,  between  fruit- 
fulness  and  frequency  of  auroras.  Finally,  Lemstrom  was 
led  to  attribute  to  the  sharp  points  of  plants,  such  as  the  beard 
of  grains,  the  function  of  i  lightning  rods/  which  collect 
atmospheric  electricity  and  facilitate  the  exchange  of  the 
charges  of  the  air  and  the  ground. 

"  Thereupon  he  proceeded  to  submit  the  suspected  effect 
of  electricity  upon  vegetable  growth  to  the  test  of  experiment, 
beginning  in  1885  with  a  number  of  flower-pots  containing 
similar  soil  and  seed.  Some  of  the  pots  were  subjected  to 
the  action  of  an  influence  or  inductive  statical  machine,  one 
pole  of  which  was  connected  with  the  soil  in  the  pot,  and  the 
other  with  a  wire  netting  stretched  over  it.  The  other  pots 
were  left  to  nature.  The  electric  machine  was  driven 
several  hours  daily.  Within  a  week  the  electrified  plants 
showed  a  more  vigorous  growth  than  the  others,  and  in  eight 
weeks  the  disparity  in  weight,  of  grain  and  straw  alike, 
amounted  to  forty  per  cent."  4 

A  continent  is  said  to  have  existed  in  these  far  northern 
latitudes  in  the  primitive  Eocene,  and  this  same  canopy-like 
structure  which  had  its  origin  from  equatorial  rings  points 
us  back  to  the  southern  oceans,  where  the  waters  were  held 
up  in  a  heap  by  the  gravitational  pull.  In  after  ages,  when 
these  waters  were  released,  they  not  only  sought  their  level, 
but  they  were  also  attracted  toward  the  north  by  the  weight 
of  the  ice  itself. 

H.  W.  Pearson  has  recently  come  out  with  a  new  idea  as 
to  the  cause  of  the  raised  beaches,  which  were  once  necessarily 
near  the  water's  level,  but  which  have  now  acquired  consider- 
able elevation.  The  correlation  of  his  facts  relative  to  the 
uniformities  of  elevation  and  gradient  of  these  old  markings 
are  germane  to  our  own  hypothesis.  We  cannot  admit,  how- 
ever, the  cause  which  he  assigns  for  their  origin,  namely  the 


4  Vol.  xcii,  No.  23,  June  10,  1905. 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION  93 

Adhemar-Croll  hypothesis,  of  which  we  will  have  more  to  say 
hereafter.  Oscillations  of  such  long  duration  will  not  fit  in 
with  facts  such  as  those  introduced  at  the  end  of  our  last 
chapter,  which  showed  fourteen  vicissitudes  of  climate,  some 
of  them  of  a  sudden  nature,  and  all  within  one  geological 
period.  Pearson,  however,  has  done  a  very  good  work  in 
revealing  the  wide  scope  and  the  symmetrical  character  of 
the  remains  left  by  the  inundations  of  the  past.  He  says: 

"  Now,  then,  if  glacial  dams  and  chance  upheaval  of  the 
crust  are  both  to  fail  us  when  we  seek  for  explanation  of 
these  strange  facts  in  the  raised  beaches,  it  is  our  duty  to 
look  elsewhere,  and  in  such  a  search  it  is  soon  discovered 
that  there  is  but  one  physical  cause  that  can  be  considered 
adequate  to  our  needs,  and  this  may  be  stated  as  the  displace- 
ment of  the  earth's  centre  of  gravity  by  the  accumulated  ice 
of  the  last  glacial  epoch,  and  the  consequent  submergence  of 
all  northern  shore  lines/'  5 

This  brings  us  back  to  the  point  we  were  discussing: 
the  disappearance  of  the  primitive  Eocene  Arctic  Continent. 
Pearson  has  found  that  the  inclination  of  the  beaches  shows 
a  raised  gradient  toward  the  north.  Starting  at  sea  level 
at  the  equator,  they  rise  approximately  as  the  sine  of  the 
latitude,  until,  as  estimated,  they  would  reach  an  altitude  of 
1,467  feet  above  present  sea  level  at  the  pole.  No  doubt  this 
great  weight  of  water  was  the  cause  of  the  permanent  depres- 
sion of  the  land  surface.  Pearson  believes  that  the  shifting 
of  the  waters  as  indicated  could  have  taken  place  only  at  the 
expense  of  the  waters  of  the  southern  hemisphere,  and  while 
it  may  be  true  that  the  north  claimed  more  than  its  rightful 
share  from  that  region,  still  it  seems  to  us  more  probable  that 
it  was  the  equatorial  waters  alone  that  were  transferred. 

Other  authorities  have  likewise  recognized  the  potent  in- 
fluence of  the  great  mass  of  ice  in  causing  a  shifting  of  the 
waters.  James  Geikie  says: 


5  Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1682,  March  28,  1908. 


94  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  The  view  set  forth  by  Mr.  Jamieson,6  that  the  apparent 
rise  of  the  sea-level  in  glacial  times  was  induced  by  sub- 
sidence of  the  earth's  crust  under  the  weight  of  the  ice-sheets, 
has  been  received  with  considerable  favor  by  geologists.  His 
leading  idea  is  '  that  the  ice-covered  regions  were  depressed  by 
reason  of  the  great  weight  of  ice  placed  upon  them,  and  that 
when  the  ice  disappeared  they  rose  again  with  extreme  slow- 
ness, and  may  have  eventually  attained  nearly  their  former 
level ;  but  in  most  cases/  he  believes,  e  some  amount  of  perma- 
nent depression  probably  occurred.'  This  hypothesis  appears 
to  explain  so  many  facts,  that  geologists  are  naturally  inclined 
to  accept  it.  It  accounts  for  the  striking  association  of 
glaciation  and  submergence."  7 

It  is  suggested  that  the  subsidence  that  followed  this  gen- 
eral movement  was  only  started  by  these  influences.  It  is  a 
matter  of  geological  record  that  once  a  land  begins  to  rise  or 
to  sink  the  movement  usually  continues  through  long 
successive  ages. 

Even  now  the  waters  are  not  deep  in  the  north  polar 
region.  Dr.  Tarleton  H.  Bean,  in  his  journal  of  the  voyage 
of  the  Yukon,  writes  under  date  of  August  24 :  "  The  water 
is  quite  shoal  here,  and  generally  in  the  Arctic,  32  fathoms 
being  the  deepest  sounding  on  my  chart — so  that  while  an 
ugly  sea  rises  quickly,  it  also  subsides  quickly  with  a  change 
of  wind,  and  does  not  make  life  miserable  for  days  and  days 
after  a  storm,  as  is  the  case  in  the  deep  sea."  8 

These  thoughts  lead  to  a  consideration  of  the  conditions 
which  existed  before  the  Ice  age  set  in.  G.  Frederick  Wright 
says :  "  From  Maine  and  Puget  Sound  to  the  arctic  archi- 
pelago and  Greenland,  the  abundant  long  and  branching  fiords 
of  these  northern  regions,  and  the  wide  and  deep  channels 


8  Geological  Magazine,  1882,  p.  400. 
T"The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  p.  786. 
8 "The  White  World,"  p.  254. 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION  95 

dividing  their  islands,  attest  a  very  long  time  of  pre-glacial 
high  elevation  there."  9 

The  same  author  says  of  this  flooded  continent,  in  con- 
nection with  its  bearing  on  the  distribution  of  species,  that 
"  the  polar  projection  of  the  earth  down  to  the  northern  tropic 
shows  to  the  eye — as  our  maps  do  not — how  all  the  lands 
come  together  into  one  region,  and  how  natural  it  may  be 
for  the  same  species,  under  homogeneous  conditions,  to  spread 
over  it.  When  we  know,  moreover,  that  sea  and  land  have 
varied  greatly  since  these  species  existed,  we  may  well  believe 
that  any  ocean-gaps,  now  in  the  way  of  equable  distribution, 
may  have  been  bridged  over.  There  is  now  only  one 
considerable  gap."  10 

Again  our  author  remarks :  "  Asa  Gray  and  others  have 
shown  that  the  affinity  of  the  plants  of  southern  Greenland 
with  those  of  Europe  is  such  as  to  make  it  probable  that  they 
emigrated  directly  from  Europe,  rather  than  by  the  longer 
route  across  Asia  and  North  America.  Davis  Strait  seems 
to  have  been  a  more  effectual  barrier  to  the  emigration  of 
plants  than  was  the  North  Atlantic  on  the  east  of  Greenland. 
This  would  imply  that  the  elevation  of  the  bed  of  the  North 
Atlantic  is  more  certainly  proved,  or  that  it  was  longer  con- 
tinued than  that  of  Davis  Strait  or  Baffin  Bay ;  or  possibly  it 
may  prove  simply  that,  from  being  freer  of  ice,  it  was  more 
available  for  the  passage  of  plants  and  animals."  u 

Yet  one  more  citation  from  this  great  glacialist  may  be 
pardoned.  He  says :  "  From  the  geographic  distribution 
of  animals,  not  less  than  of  plants,  abundant  evidence  is 
found  that  in  a  late  geologic  time,  probably  comprising  the 
closing  stage  of  the  Tertiary  era  and  the  early  part  of  the 
Quaternary  until  the  Ice  age,  an  extensive  land  area  occupied 
the  present  place  of  Behring  Strait  and  Sea,  upon  which  the 


9 "  Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North  Atlantic,"  p.  320. 
10 "The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  379. 
""Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North  Atlantic,"  p.  369. 


96  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

fauna  and  flora  of  the  northern  lands  freely  migrated  from 
Europe  and  Asia  to  America,  and  the  reverse,  becoming 
nearly  alike  in  these  two  great  continental  regions.  Over  all 
the  circumpolar  land  expanse  the  mammoth,  mastodon,  and 
many  other  large  animals  roamed  from  the  United  States  to 
Alaska,  Siberia,  Continental  Europe,  and  the  British  Isles 
during  late  Tertiary  times."  12 

In  an  editorial  comment  on  "  Where  Did  Life  Begin  ?  " 
E".  H.  Winchell  says :  "  In  several  of  his  chapters  Dr. 
Warren  directs  attention  to  the  conditions  favoring  the  com- 
mencement of  life  at  the  pole.  See  p.  59.  Wallace  (quoted 
by  Warren)  shows  that  i  the  facts  of  arctic  paleontology  call 
for  the  supposition  of  a  primitive  Eocene  continent  in  the 
highest  latitudes/  Professor  Heer  of  Zurich  noted  the  same. 
Baron  Nordenskjb'ld  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  J. 
Starkie  Gardner  argued  from  the  facts  known  then  (1878) 
that  continuous  land  once  united  Europe  and  North  America. 
This  arctic  continent,  whether  it  was  that  which  was  sub- 
merged by  the  ocean  that  covered  northern  Asia,  as  shown  by 
Professor  G.  F.  Wright,  in  late  Glacial  or  post-Glacial  time, 
or  was  that  which  gave  birth  to  the  great  glaciers  of  the  Glacial 
epoch,  subsisted  through  the  Tertiary,  since  fossil  Tertiary 
land  plants,  indicating  warm  and  moist  climates,  have  been 
found  at  numerous  points  within  the  Arctic  circle.  Given 
this  continent  and  the  tropical  warmth  that  its  fossils  denote, 
the  great  preponderance  of  light  over  darkness,  the  intensity 
of  direct,  continued  sun's  rays,  and  the  conditions  were 
favorable  for  the  most  luxuriant,  if  not  for  spontaneous,  life. 
It  is  now  a  well-known  doctrine  of  fossil  botanists  that  the 
oldest  land  plants  of  the  earth  originated  in  the  region  of 
the  North  Pole  and  from  there  spread  southwardly.  This 
evolution  toward  the  south  continued.  That  the  Arctic 
region  was  the  birth  place  of  plants  and  continued  to  send 


Ibid.,  p.  215. 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION  97 

her  progeny  southward  until  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  has 
been  demonstrated  by  Gray,  Heer,  Hooker,  Kuntze,  Saporta, 
and  others. 

"  With  the  existence  of  such  a  continent  at  the  North  Pole, 
and  with  the  demonstrated  stream  of  migratory  plant  life 
emerging  from  it,  the  author  does  not  fail  to  inquire  as  to  the 
evidence  of  animal  origin  in  the  same  region.  He  quotes 
Orton  (1876)  and  Wallace  (1876)  to  the  effect  that  the 
north  temperate  and  Arctic  regions  have  been  the  starting- 
points  of  long  continued  migrations,  and  concludes  this 
branch  of  his  inquiry  in  the  following  words :  '  From  all  the 
facts,  but  one  conclusion  is  possible,  and  that  is  that  like  as 
the  Arctic  pole  is  the  mother  region  of  all  plants,  so  it  is 
the  mother  region  of  all  animals — the  region  where  in  the 
beginning  God  created  every  beast  of  the  earth  after  its  kind, 
and  cattle  after  their  kind.  And  this  is  the  conclusion  now 
being  reached  and  announced  by  all  comparative  zoologists 
who  busy  themselves  with  the  problem  of  the  origin  and 
prehistoric  distribution  of  the  animal  world.7  " 13 

It  is  not  assumed  in  our  hypothesis  that  the  origin  of  life 
was  at  the  pole,  but  simply  that  the  canopy  introduced  condi- 
tions favorable  to  development  and  distribution  from  that 
point.  It  gives  a  reason  for  the  many  apparent  anomalies 
in  the  distribution  of  living  beings  in  time  and  space.  The 
facts  show  this  much,  and  the  greenhouse  roof  explains  the 
facts.  The  conditions  were  recurrent  with  the  appearance  of 
each  successive  canopy. 

Warren's  central  idea  of  sun-controlled  climates  is  all 
wrong.  Manson's  theory  of  earth-controlled  or  canopy- 
controlled  climates  approaches  the  truth,  but  this  roof  must 
be  broken  up  into  separate  belts,  otherwise  the  whole  earth 
was  encompassed  by  a  mantle  of  cloud,  a  separate  cause  has 

18  American   Geologist,   vol.    xxxiii,    No.    3,   March,    1904;    Wm.    F. 
Warren,   "Paradise   Found";    G.   Hilton   Scribner,   "Where  Did   Life 
Begin?" 
7 


98  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

to  be  found  to  account  for  the  subsidence  of  the  Arctic  con- 
tinent, the  evolution  of  exogens  remains  unexplained,  and 
finally  the  recurrence  of  similar  polar  conditions  in  different 
geological  ages  makes  the  idea  untenable.  For  these  reasons 
the  content  of  the  atmosphere  could  not  have  formed  the 
blanket. 

In  this  connection  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury  have  put 
the  following  on  record :  "  An  atmosphere  so  heavily  sur- 
charged with  carbon  dioxide  and  water-vapor  must  have  been 
rich  in  heat-absorbing  power,  and  should  have  given  a  very 
warm,  equable  climate  to  the  earth,  as  has  been  rightly 
assumed.  Warm  equable  climates  did  indeed  prevail  in 
a  portion  of  the  earlier  history  of  the  earth,  as  also  in  the 
later ;  but  the  investigations  of  the  past  two  decades  in  India, 
Australia,  and  South  Africa  have  forced  the  recognition  of 
extensive  glaciation  on  the  very  border  of  the  tropics,  at  a 
period  as  early  as  the  closing  Paleozoic.  Evidences  of  glacia- 
tion in  northwestern  Europe,  and  also  in  China  in  about  30° 
N".  lat,  at  or  near  the  base  of  the  Cambrian,  has  recently 
been  presented.  Less  striking  but  perhaps  not  less  sig- 
nificant is  the  occurrence  in  the  early  Paleozoic,  of  extensive 
salt  and  gypsum  beds  in  rather  high  latitudes.  These  de- 
posits seem  to  imply  severe  and  protracted  aridity,  and  such 
aridity,  especially  where  north  of  the  30°  belt,  is  not  readily 
reconcilable  with  an  enormous  equalizing  atmospheric 
envelope. 

u  There  seem,  therefore,  to  have  been,  in  Paleozoic  times, 
much  the  same  alternations  of  very  uniform  with  very 
diversified  climates  that  marked  the  Mesozoic  and  Cenozoic 
eras ;  in  other  words,  the  alternations  of  climate  seem  to  have 
been  of  much  the  same  order  throughout  the  known  eras. 
The  hypothesis  of  an  enormous  original  atmosphere  suffering 
gradual  depletion  finds,  therefore,  but  scant  and  uncertain 
support  in  a  critical  study  of  either  the  biological  or  the 
physical  history  of  the  earth."  14 

"Geo.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  87-88. 


EVOLUTION  AND  DISTRIBUTION  99 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  like  conditions  existed 
at  the  South  pole,  and  that  this  section  also  testifies  that  the 
atmospheric  content  could  not  have  been  the  controlling 
factor  of  the  climates.  The  zoogeographical  distributions 
establish  the  fact  of  the  land  connection,  and  science  has  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  name  this  Antarctic  continent.  In  the 
Permic  it  was  known  as  Gondwana  Land,  and  it  is  said  to 
have  embraced  Brazil,  India,  South  Africa,  and  Australia. 
~No  doubt  the  causes-  which  brought  about  the  .destruction  of 
the  North  polar  continent  were  the  -same  that  brought  about 
its  destruction.  In  a  future  chapter  we  will  show  that  the 
action  in  both  hemispheres  was  contemporaneous.  This  co- 
incidence of  time,  and  the  fact  of  equatorial  glaciation. 
exclude  the  Adhemar-Croll  hypothesis.15 

During  the  Cretaceous,  Australia  and  South  America 
were  united.16  In  the  Quaternary  the  continent  appears  to 
have  again  been  enlarged  to  the  wide  limits  it  had  in  Permian 
time.17 

"  If  the  land  extensions  and  connections  in  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  in  the  Permian  period  be  made  as  slight  as 
biological  data  permit,"  say  the  joint  authors  of  Chamber- 
lin  and  Salisbury's  Geology,  "  they  would  probably  at  least 
consist  of  a  connection  from  India,  via  Australia  and  the 
old  submerged  land,  to  New  Zealand,  and  thence  to  Antarc- 
tica, and  through  this  to  South  America.  Other  and  more 
northerly  connections  between  India  and  South  Africa,  and 
between  the  latter  and  South  America,  have  usually  been 
postulated."  ls 


15  Charles  Schuchert,  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  xiv,  No.  8,  p.  725.  See 
also  vol.  xiv,  No.  2,  pp.  81-90;  Dana,  "Manual  of  Geology,"  4th  ed., 
pp.  737,  873,  937. 

16 Dr.  W.  D.  Matthew,  "Outlines  of  the  Continents  in  Tertiary 
Times,"  Map  No.  1. 

"James  D.  Dana,  "Man.  of  Geo.,"  4th  ed.,  p.  1019. 

18  Vol.  ii,  pp.  675-676. 


100  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

These  conditions  were  followed  by  periftds  of  cold  just  the 
same  as  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  The  records  as  re- 
vealed to  date  are  as  follows :  "  In  New  Zealand  the  marks 
of  the  Glacial  period  are  unequivocal.  The  glaciers  which 
now  come  down  from  the  lofty  mountains  upon  the  South 
Island  of  New  Zealand  to  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the 
sea  then  descended  to  the  sea-level.  The  longest  existing 
glacier  in  New  Zealand  is  sixteen  miles.  One  of  the  ancient 
moraines  contains  a  boulder  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  in 
diameter,  and  the  amount  of  glacial  debris  covering  the 
mountain-sides  is  said  to  be  enormous.  Reports  have 
also  been  recently  brought  of  signs  of  ancient  glaciers  in 
Australia. 

"  According  to  Darwin,  there  are  distinct  signs  of  glacia- 
tion  upon  the  plains  of  Patagonia,  sixty  or  seventy  miles  east 
of  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  and  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan 
he  found  great  masses  of  unstratified  glacial  material  con- 
taining boulders  which  were  at  least  one  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  away  from  their  parent  rock;  while  upon  the  island  of 
Chiloe  he  found  embedded  in  '  hardened  mud '  boulders 
which  must  have  come  from  the  mountain-chains  of  the 
continent.  Agassiz  also  observed  unquestionable  glacial 
phenomena  on  various  parts  of  the  Fuegian  coast,  and  indeed 
everywhere  on  the  continent  south  of  latitude  37°.  Between 
Concepcion  and  Arauco,  in  latitude  37°,  Agaseiz  observed, 
near  sea-level,  a  glacial  surface  well  marked  with  furrows 
and  scratches,  and  as  well  preserved,  he  says,  '  as  any  he  had 
seen  under  the  glaciers  of  the  present  day.'  "  19 


MG.  Frederick  Wright,  "Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,"  2d  ed.,  pp. 
126-128. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES 

THE  cause  of  the  ice  inundations,  up  to  this  time,  has 
remained  locked  in  the  bosom  of  nature.  Nearly  all  the 
hypotheses  advanced  in  explanation  of  the  phenomena  may 
be  grouped  under  the  following  heads:  (1)  the  astronomic, 
which  call  upon  influences  from  outside  the  earth;  (2)  the 
hypsometric,  those  which  appeal  to  continental  elevation; 
(3)  the  atmospheric,  those  depending  upon  the  constitution 
and  movements  of  the  earth's  gaseous  envelopes. 

Croll's  semi-astronomic  hypothesis,1  founded  on  the -vari- 
ations in  the  eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit  and  the  preces- 
sion of  the  equinoxes,  is  dead.  The  greatly  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  time  element  kills  it.  Croll  placed  the  close 
of  the  last  glacial  epoch  as  80,000  years  ago,  which,  in  the 
light  of  modern  discovery,  is  simply  preposterous.  Later 
modifications  which  bring  the  last  stages  of  the  ice  down  to 
within  ten  thousand  years  are  also  open  to  question. 

The  phenomena  connected  with  the  ice  invasion  seem  to 
have  been  practically  universal,  even  the  elevated  areas  in 
the  tropics  being  glaciated.  Here  once  more  CrolFs  theory, 
that  the  glacial  epochs  in  one  hemisphere  coincided  with  the 
interglacial  epochs  in  the  other,  and  vice  versa,  is  sadly  want- 
ing. This  same  reason  also  rules  out  the  epeirogenic  or 
elevation  theory,2  and  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  oscillations  between 
the  continents  and  oceans,  and  all  other  hypotheses  founded 


1 "  Climate  and  Time  in  Their  Geological  Relations,"  also  "  Climate 
and  Cosmology,"  by  James  Croll;  "The  Cause  of  the  Ice  Age,"  Sir 
Robert  Ball;  and  "The  Great  Ice  Age,"  James  Geikie. 

2  G.  Frederick  Wright,  "  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  p.  573  ff. 
James  D.  Dana,  Man.  of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  p.  978. 

101 


102  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

on  changes  in  the  distribution  of  land  and  water,  together 
with  the  hypothesis  of  a  shifting  polar  axis.  In  this  connec- 
tion the  following  citation  from  Le  Conte  is  to  the  point.  He 
says: 

"  The  more  important  element  in  the  glacial  problem  is 
the  cause  of  the  lower  temperature.  The  fact  of  Permian 
glaciation  in  low  latitudes,  either  side  of  the  equator,  rules 
out  the  astronomic  hypothesis,  and  continental  elevation  alone 
is  insufficient.  But  a  sufficient  cause  of  secular  changes  of 
temperature,  affecting  the  whole  earth  alike,  is  found  in 
the  variation  in  amount  of  the  carbon  dioxide  of  the 
atmosphere/'  3 

The  true  cause,  then,  should  be  sought  in  or  above  the 
atmosphere,  but,  as  already  intimated,  a  uniform  blanket 
will  not  do,  and  to  this  we  may  add,  neither  will  variation 
in  the  amount  of  carbon  dioxide  answer,  for  if  depletion 
brought  on  the  cold,  then  evaporation  would  have  been  less. 
Cyclonic  action  and  precipitation  would  have  been  at  a 
minimum.  In  other  words,  the  idea  that  cold  alone  is 
responsible  for  bringing  about  glacial  conditions  is  like  killing 
the  goose  which  lays  the  golden  eggs.  "  It  is  perfectly  mani- 
fest," remarks  Tyndall,  "  that  by  weakening  the  sun's  action, 
either  through  a  defect  of  emission  or  by  steeping  of  the 
entire  solar  system  in  space  of  a  low  temperature,  we  shall 
be  cutting  off  the  glaciers  at  their  source."  4 

Carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere  makes  a  uniform 
blanket,  depletion  makes  the  air  more  transparent  to  re- 
flected heat  (dark  heat).  The  blanket  once  thinned,  the 
temperature  falls,  the  moisture  decreases,  and  for  this  reason 
conditions  are  not  good  for  an  ice  age;  but  nevertheless,  as 
stated  above,  the  true  cause  should  be  sought  in  the 
atmosphere,  or,  more  correctly,  in  the  regions  immediately 
above  the  atmosphere. 

'Elements  of  Geo.,  5th  ed.,  p.  617. 

4 "  Heat  Considered  as  a  Mode  of  Motion." 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES       .  103 

Step  by  step  now  let  us  follow  the  on-coming  of  the 
Glacial  epoch  and  its  explanation  as  revealed  by  the  present 
hypothesis.  Previous  to  the  period  of  cold,  we  have  seen 
that  the  warm  climates  did  actually  exist  everywhere  north 
of  the  Arctic  circle,  and  a  canopy  was  postulated  as  existing 
up  to  the  boundaries  of  the  polar  regions.  The  warm  tem- 
peratures originating  under  this  roof  are  further  supposed 
to  have  drifted  out  over  the  open  space  of  the  north,  carrying 
with  them  a  temperate  climate  almost  to  the  pole  itself.  At 
this  time  the  vegetation  of  central  Europe  and  of  the  Middle 
Atlantic  States  of  America  flourished  in  northern  Greenland 
and  in  Spitzbergen. 

It  is  not  assumed  that  the  blanket  which  existed  outside 
or  above  the  atmosphere  was  of  any  great  degree  of  thickness ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  probably  exceedingly  thin.  Yet  its 
influence  was  such  that  it  prevented  the  free  radiation  of 
heat,  and  thus  it  caused  the  secondary  belts  of  vapor  to  be 
raised  in  the  atmosphere  itself.  ISTow,  since  the  primary 
canopy  was  upheld  by  centrifugal  force,  and  since  this  force 
was  at  a  minimum  at  the  axis  of  rotation,  it  follows  that,  as 
it  spread  beyond  the  point  of  stability,  its  northern  edge  must 
have  been  subjected  to  a  continual  depletion. 

It  is  postulated  on  the  strongest  scientific  grounds  that 
as  the  canopy  aged  it  lost  energy,  hence  this  point  of  stability 
retreated  further  and  further  south,  and  the  great  secondary 
vapor  belts  withdrew  with  it.  IsTatural  sun-controlled 
climatic  conditions  then  began  to  appear  in  its  wake,  and  the 
average  temperature  became  cooler  and  cooler. 

Picture  now  the  descent  and  dispersal  of  the  forests 
adjusted  to  a  temperate  climate.  The  tropical  forms  were 
forced  to  migrate  southward,  and  this  made  room  for  the 
downward  march  of  the  inhabitants  of  Greenland  and  Spitz- 
bergen to  more  hospitable  latitudes.  A  single  tree  is  helpless 
before  such  a  change  in  environment,  since  a  tree  alone  cannot 
migrate.  But  a  forest  of  trees  can,  hence  they  followed  the 


104  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

retreating  canopy,  keeping  under  it  or  just  beyond  its  con- 
fines, according  to  the  conditions  to  which  they  were  best 
suited.  As  the  favorable  conditions  near  the  pole  were  dis- 
turbed, the  individual  trees  on  that  side  of  the  forest-belt 
gradually  perished,  but  at  the  same  time  new  territory  was 
continually  being  invaded  southward. 

The  first  changes  in  the  climate,  then,  were  not  of  a 
sudden  nature.  But  conditions  were  rapidly  ripening  for 
an  ice  age.  On  the  one  hand  vast  belts  of  vapor  circled  in 
the  lower  atmosphere  of  the  middle  zones;  on  the  other  the 
open  space  of  the  north  had  expanded  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  warm  currents  from  the  south  could  no  longer  maintain 
an  even  temperature.  In  other  words,  the  north  was  becom- 
ing a  condensing  area,  and  the  arctic  flora  and  fauna  began 
to  descend  into  the  cloudy  debatable  region. 

Charles  Darwin  says :  "  The  identity  of  many  plants 
and  animals  on  mountain-summits,  separated  from  each  other 
by  hundreds  of  miles  of  low-lands,  where  Alpine  species  could 
not  possibly  exist,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  cases  known  of 
the  same  species  living  at  distant  points,  without  the  apparent 
possibility  of  their  having  migrated  from  one  point  to  the 
other.  It  is  indeed  a  remarkable  fact  to  see  so  many  plants 
of  the  same  species  living  on  the  snowy  regions  of  the  Alps  or 
Pyrenees,  and  in  the  extreme  northern  parts  of  Europe ;  but 
it  is  far  more  remarkable  that  the  plants  on  the  White 
Mountains,  in  the  United  States  of  America,  are  all  the 
same  with  those  of  Labrador,  and  nearly  all  the  same,  as  we 
hear  from  Asa  Gray,  with  those  on  the  loftiest  mountains 
of  Europe."  5 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  gave  as  an  explanation  of  the  com- 
mingling of  arctic  and  southern  forms  of  animal  life  his 
opinion  that  the  periods  of  summer  and  winter  were  more 
strongly  contrasted.  The  fact  of  this  commingling  must  have 


"  Origin  of  Species,"  vol.  ii,  p.  92. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  105 

» 

greatly  troubled  Sir  Charles,  as  he  was  the  great  exponent  of 
the  doctrine  of  uniformity. 

But  let  us  take  up  once  more  the  thread  of  the  on-coming 
of  the  Ice  age.  When  the  northern  limit  of  the  canopy  had 
retreated  to,  say,  the  35°  of  north  latitude,  and  the  cor- 
responding edge  in  the  south  had  withdrawn  to  the  35°  of 
south  latitude,  the  condensing  area  as  portrayed  above  was 
represented  by  the  middle  ground  between  the  pole  and  the 
canopy  belt. 

The  great  masses  of  cloud  undoubtedly  reduced  the  aver- 
age summer  temperature.  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury  recog- 
nize the  potent  influence  of  such  persistent  cloud  and  wind 
factors,  but  to  account  for  these  same  factors  is  as  difficult  a 
problem  to  them  as  the  original  puzzle.  Having  shown  how 
these  originated  under  the  influence  of  the  canopy,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  see  what  the  joint  authors  have  to  say  about  what 
they  call  the  Proximate  hypotheses.  We  therefore  quote 
them  as  follows: 

"  In  the  atmospheric  class  of  hypotheses  are  to  be 
reckoned  two  that  are  proximate  but  not  ultimate  hypotheses : 
namely,  the  cloud  hypothesis  and  the  wind  hypothesis.  With- 
out doubt,  clouds  and  wind  are  important  factors  in  the 
development  of  glaciation,  but  if  clouds  are  made  the  essential 
factor,  the  problem  is  only  shifted  to  the  cause  of  such 
persistent  clouds  covering  such  large  areas  for  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  years  consecutively,  with  a  cooling  potency  compe- 
tent to  develop  the  great  ice-sheets.  The  solution  of  this  seems 
as  formidable  as  the  problem  in  its  usual  form."  6 

The  united  effect  of  persistent  cloud  and  wind  conditions 
was  the  lowering  of  the  snow  line,  probably  some  several 
thousand  feet,  and  thus  all  the  conditions  became  favorable 
to  the  rapid  accumulation  of  the  ice.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  a  lowering  of  the  average  temperature  of  the  globe  from 


6  Geo.,  vol.  iii,  p.  445. 


106  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

5°  to  8°  C.  below  the  present  temperature  would  be  sufficient 
to  produce  general  conditions  of  glaciation.7 

"  Prof.  Shaler  has  warned  us  that  New  England  at  the 
present  time  barely  escapes  glacial  conditions.  The  rudi- 
ments of  a  glacier  still  remain  in  Tuckermann's  Ravine  upon 
Mount  Washington.  A  slight  lowering  of  temperature  or  a 
slight  increase  of  snowfall  would  again  start  the  glaciers  of 
the  White  Mountains  out  upon  their  career,  and  when  once 
started,  it  is  difficult  to  tell  where  they  would  stop ;  for  glaciers 
intensify  the  conditions  to  which  they  owe  their  origin,  and 
would  seem  to  have  almost  unlimited  power  when  once  the 
forces  producing  them  have  come  fully  into  play.  Equally 
close  is  the  approach  to  glacial  conditions  in  Norway  and 
Alaska."  8 

The  circumstances,  then,  preeminently  favoring  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Ice  age,  were  all  present  when  the  canopy  had 
receded  to  say  the  35°  of  lat.,  abundant  moisture  was  in  the 
atmosphere,  and  climatic  conditions  favorable  to  the  precipi- 
tation of  this  moisture  as  snow  rather  than  as  rain  prevailed. 
Once  these  heavy  falls  exceeded  the  melting  capacity  of  the 
sun's  rays,  there  arose  an  annual  addition  to  the  ice-sheet 
"  Snow  locks  up,  as  it  were,  the  capital  upon  dry  land,  where, 
like  all  other  capital,  it  becomes  conservative,  and  resists  with 
great  tenacity  both  the  action  of  gravity  and  heat."  Profes- 
sor Wright  analyzes  these  cumulative  effects  and  he  further 
says: 

"  Under  the  influence  of  heat  ice  melts,  but  in  melting  it 
consumes  an  enormous  amount  of  force.  In  order  to  melt 
one  cubic  foot  of  ice,  as  much  heat  is  required  as  would  heat 
a  cubic  foot  of  water  from  the  freezing-point  to  176°  Fahr., 
or  two  cubic  feet  to  88°  Fahr.  To  melt  a  layer  of  ice  a  foot 
thick  will  therefore  use  up  as  much  heat  as  would  raise  a 

'Mid.,  p.  444. 

8G.  Frederick  Wright,  "Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North 
Atlantic,"  p.  377. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  107 

layer  of  water  two  feet  thick  to  the  temperature  of  88°  Eahr. ; 
and  the  effect  becomes  still  more  easily  understood  if  we  esti- 
mate it  as  applied  to  air,  for  to  melt  a  layer  of  ice  only  one 
and  a  half  inches  thick  would  require  as  much  heat  as  would 
raise  a  stratum  of  air  eight  hundred  feet  thick  from  the  freez- 
ing-point to  the  tropical  heat  of  88°  Fahr.  We  thus  obtain  a 
good  idea  both  of  the  wonderful  power  of  snow  and  ice  in 
keeping  down  temperature  and  also  the  reason  why  it  takes 
so  long  a  time  to  melt  away,  and  is  able  to  go  on  accumulating 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  become  permanent."  9 

The  importance  of  the  cold  polar  currents,  furnishing,  as 
they  did,  the  cold  dry  air  necessary  to  cause  precipitation, 
must  not  be  overlooked.  The  path  which  these  currents  took 
was  established  by  the  same  laws  that  exist  to-day,  hence  the 
cyclonic  areas  cover  the  same  ground.  Persistent  clouds 
and  fog,  habitual  to  such  conditions,  formed  and  shielded  the 
glacial  surface  by  their  high  reflecting  powers,  hence  all  the 
auxiliary  forces  of  nature  may  be  said  to  have  fallen  into 
line,  doing  their  share  to  promote  the  general  glacial 
conditions. 

The  next  point  that  attracts  our  attention  is  the  centres 
of  distribution.  The  localization  of  these  show  that  they 
occupied  areas  of  permanent  atmospheric  depression.  There 
is  a  remarkable  correspondence  between  the  border  of  the 
ice-sheets  and  the  course  of  the  movement  of  storms  to-day. 
In  other  language,  the  atmospheric  conditions  were  simply 
exaggerated.  The  extremes  were  greater,  but  the  cyclonic 
paths  of  the  storms  were  the  same.  It  is  notable  that  the 
great  ice-lobes  converged  toward  the  area  where  storm- 
frequency  is  now  greatest.  The  canopy  established  the 
mechanical  factor  which  produced  the  vapor,  and  as  this  was 
fixed  geographically  the  cyclonic  area  also  became  fixed,  in- 
stead of  moving  with  the  atmosphere  as  the  familiar  stray 


"  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  406. 


108  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

cyclones  do.  It  seems  natural,  therefore,  that  their  paths 
should  have  been  approximately  the  same  then  as  now. 

This  conception  provides  for  the  precipitation  of  the 
vapors  brought  into  existence  by  a  fixed  mechanical  agency, 
and  it  gives  a  reason  for  the  low  temperature  that  caused 
this  precipitation  to  be  in  the  form  of  snow.  In  Siberia,  as 
at  present,  the  average  precipitation  should  have  been  rela- 
tively low,  therefore  the  conditions  never  quite  reached  the 
glacial  stage;  nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that  great  floods 
swept  over  that  land.  A  glance  at  the  map  of  North  America 
shows  that  the  glacial  centres  were  somewhere  in  the  vicinity 
of  Lake  Superior  and  Labrador.  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury 
remark  that: 

"It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  the  ice-sheets  after 
their  several  retreats,  and  perhaps  entire  disappearances, 
should  have  advanced  repeatedly  in  nearly  the  same  forms 
and  to  nearly  the  same  extents,  though  in  some  particulars 
their  habits  otherwise  were  noticeably  unlike.  All  these  and 
many  minor  facts  are  associated  in  theory  with  these  perma- 
nent '  lows  '  and  the  related  storm-tracks.  These  features  are 
presumed  to  have  been  extended  and  intensified  during  the 
glacial  stages,  but  to  have  retained  the  general  relations  and 
configurations  they  now  possess."  10 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  present  hypothesis,  it  does  not 
appear  remarkable  that  the  several  ice-sheets  should  have 
occupied  nearly  the  same  identical  region.  A  machine  turns 
out  the  same  results  simply  because  it  is  mechanical,  and  the 
canopy  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  fixed  feature. 
Fluctuations  in  the  declining  edge  of  the  canopy,  causing  it 
to  advance  further  north  or  retreat  further  south,  are  prob- 
ably answerable  for  like  advances  and  retreats  of  the  ice- 
sheets.  The  recognition  of  these  recessions  and  advances  is 
of  much  more  importance  than  the  question  whether  they 
are  to  be  regarded  as  distinct  glacial  epochs. 

10Geo.,  vol.  iii.  p.  433. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  109 

Here  is  another  feature.  Wright  says :  "  It  must  be 
confessed  that  Professor  Dana's  estimates  of  the  size  of  the 
Connecticut  River  floods  at  that  time  are  somewhat  startling, 
even  with  all  the  changes  of  level  for  which  he  provides  in  his 
theory.  For,  after  reducing,  by  reason  of  the  Champlain 
depression,  the  gradient  of  the  stream  during  the  close  of  the 
Ice  period  by  one  third,  the  slope  of  the  surface  of  the  Con- 
necticut would  still  have  been  more  than  one  foot  per  mile. 
This,  in  a  torrent  2,500  feet  wide,  with  a  depth  of  140  feet, 
would  produce  a  current  of  eight  miles  per  hour  on  the  surface 
and  of  six  miles  on  the  bottom.  With  this  size  of  the  flood, 
the  rate  of  discharge  would  be  about  four  hundred  cubic  miles 
of  water  per  annum;  whereas,  at  the  present  time  the  total 
discharge  of  a  year  is  only  about  five  cubic  miles.  To  cause 
this  enormous  rate,  Professor  Dana  supposes  that,  for  a  short 
period,  the  Connecticut  glacier  melted  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  a  cubic  mile  per  day.  As  he  estimates  the  area  of  this 
drainage-basin  to  be  about  8,500  square  miles,  this  would 
imply  that  at  times  as  much  as  eight  inches  per  day  melted 
from  this  surface.  This  rapid  rate  of  removal  in  summer  is 
not,  however,  supposed  to  continue  for  a  long  period — 
probably  less  than  five  years."  n 

James  Geikie,  speaking  of  certain  interglacial  beds,  tells 
us  that  they  "  are  of  the  very  highest  interest,  since  their 
evidence  amounts  to  a  demonstration  that  the  Ice  age  was 
not  one  long  uninterrupted  period  of  cold  conditions."  12 

Vegetation  sometimes  grew  up  to  the  edge  of  the  ice.  Re- 
mains are  found  in  the  drift.  The  mere  presence  of  this 
material  in  situ  between  beds  of  drift  is  no  proof  of  distinct 
glacial  epochs,  for  this  growth  may  have  occurred  during  a 
temporary  retreat,  and  a  slight  advance  of  the  ice  may  have 
buried  it  beneath  more  drift.  It  is  proof,  however,  that  the 

11 "  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  pp.  306-307.    American 
Journal  of  Science,  vol.  cxxiii,  1882,  p.   198. 
""The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  p.  129. 


110  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

climate  on  the  border  of  the  ice  was  not  so  cold  after  all. 
A  slight  advance  of  the  canopy  bringing  this  perpetual  sum- 
mer warmth  over  the  edge  of  the  glacier  caused  floods  such 
as  that  pictured  by  Dana. 

Forest  remains,  found  under  like  conditions  as  those  above 
portrayed,  not  only  show  the  presence  of  this  warmth,  but  also 
that  the  periods  of  fluctuation  were  sometimes  of  considerable 
length. 

"  Among  the  most  remarkable  of  the  interglacial  forest 
beds  are  those  near  Toronto.  Among  the  identifiable  plant 
remains  are  those  of  the  pawpaw,  the  ash,  the  elm,  the  oak, 
and  the  yew.  Most  of  these  species  now  range  as  far  north 
as  Toronto,  but  most  of  them  have  their  greatest  development 
farther  south.  The  pawpaw  is  not  known  so  far  north.  It 
flourishes  in  the  latitude  of  the  Ohio  River,  ranging  thence 
north  to  Lake  Erie.  At  the  present  time  these  species  as  a 
whole  seem  to  belong  to  the  climate  of  a  latitude  somewhat 
lower  than  that  of  Toronto.  Their  testimony  is  that  the 
climate  of  Toronto,  during  the  interval  of  deglaciation  when 
they  grew,  was  somewhat  warmer  than  that  of  the  present 
time  in  the  same  locality.  Toronto  is  800  miles  or  more 
from  the  centre  of  the  Labrador  ice  sheet."  13 

Because  of  this  evidence  of  heat,  the  joint  authors  of  the 
!N"ew  Jersey  publication  arrive  at  the  following  conclusion: 
"  The  temperate  climate  which  the  plant  remains  prove  makes 
it  clear  that  the  ice  sheet  which  existed  north  of  Toronto  at 
that  time  must  have  been  small,  for  with  no  ice  sheet  there 
at  the  present  time,  the  climate  is  less  warm  than  during  the 
interval  of  deglaciation  when  the  plants  grew. 

"  It  is  of  significance  to  note  that  the  phenomena  of 
America  are  in  keeping  with  those  of  Europe  on  this  point. 
#  *  *  "j"]^  remains  of  land  animals  are  often  found  in  the 
forest  beds  or  at  corresponding  horizons.  Their  significance 

13 "Glacial  Geology  of  New  Jersey,"  vol.  v,  Final  Report,  pp. 
171-172. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  111 

is  similar.  At  Toronto,  for  example,  animal  remains  are 
found,  and,  like  the  plants,  they  indicate  a  temperature 
warmer  than  that  of  the  same  region  at  the  present  time."  14 

It  has  been  shown  by  the  migrations  of  the  plants  and 
animals  that  the  on-coming  of  the  Ice  age  was  gradual,  but 
there  are  likewise  features  of  suddenness.  Thus  the  burial 
of  entire  mammoths  by  a  mighty  storm,  and  just  such  storms 
must  have  taken  place.  The  swirling  power  of  the  canopy 
may  at  times  have  set  the  atmospheric  belts  themselves  in 
motion,  and  the  latter  carrying  the  moisture  laden  vapors 
must  have  caused  deluges  and  snows  that  at  times  were  of 
cataclysmal  magnitude.  Winchell  says: 

"  If  the  change  to  an  arctic  climate  had  been  gradual,  the 
herds  of  mammoths  would  probably  have  slowly  migrated 
southward ;  or,  if  no  actual  migration  occurred,  the  extinction 
of  the  mammoth  population  would  have  been  distributed  over 
many  years,  and  the  destruction  of  individuals  would  have 
taken  place  at  temperatures  which  were  still  insufficiently 
rigorous  to  preserve  their  carcasses  for  a  hundred  ages. 
Whole  herds  of  mammoths  must  have  been  overwhelmed  by 
a  sudden  invasion  of  arctic  weather.  Some  secular  change 
produced  an  unprecedented  precipitation  of  snow.  We  may 
imagine  elephantine  communities  huddled  together  in  the 
sheltering  valleys  and  in  the  deep  defiles  of  the  rivers,  where, 
on  previous  occasions,  they  had  found  that  protection  which 
carried  them  safely  through  wintry  storms.  But  now  the 
snow-fall  found  no  pause.  Like  cattle  overwhelmed  in  the 
gorges  of  Montana,  the  mammoths  were  rapidly  buried.  By 
precipitation  and  by  drifting,  fifty  feet  of  snow,  perhaps, 
accumulated  above  them.  They  must  perish;  and  with  the 
sudden  change  in  the  climate,  their  shroud  of  snow  would 
remain  wrapped  about  them  through  all  the  mildness  of  the 
ensuing  summer.  The  fleecy  snow  would  become  granular; 


14  IUd.,  p.  172. 


112  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

it  would  be  neve  or  firn,  as  in  the  glacier  sources  of  the  Alps. 
It  would  finally  become  solid  ice, — compact,  clear  and  sea- 
green  in  its  limpid  depths.  It  would  be  a  glacier ;  and  so  it 
would  travel  down  the  gorges,  down  the  valleys  toward  the 
frozen  ocean,  sweeping  buried  mammoths  bodily  in  its  resist- 
less stream.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  ages,  their  mummied 
forms  would  reach  a  latitude  more  northern  than  that  in 
which  they  had  been  inhumed."  15 

The  mammoth  may  have  found  the  physical  conditions 
under  the  canopy  insupportable,  or,  again,  it  may  be  that  the 
extinction  of  this  great  beast  may  best  be  accounted  for  by 
saying,  it  was  his  intelligence  that  killed  him.  Elephants  are 
acknowledged  to  be  the  most  knowing  animals,  and  the  mam- 
moth belongs  to  this  family.  Looking  at  the  lowering  skies 
to  the  south,  perhaps  he  feared  to  explore  the  only  region 
which  would  have  meant  safety,  whereas  other  creatures,  of 
less  intelligence,  rushed  blindly  in  and  so  came  into  posses- 
sion of  the  garden-land.  The  mammoths'  stay  in  the  de- 
batable land  resulted  in  their  being  overcome  "  suddenly." 

One  of  the  difficult  problems  in  connection  with  the  cause 
of  the  Ice  age  has  always  been  to  account  for  the  remarkable 
fact  that  the  greater  part  of  Alaska,  the  extreme  North,  and 
also  portions  of  Greenland,  were  not  extensively  glaciated 
during  Pleistocene  time.16  Our  explanation  is  that  the 
gradual  withdrawal  of  the  canopy  did  not  allow  of  the  forma- 
tion of  ice-sheets  in  the  far  north.  The  area  of  precipitation 
followed  the  outer  rim  of  the  canopy,  and  until  this  had 
descended  into  the  lower  latitudes  the  clear  space  of  the 
north  was  not  large  enough  to  allow  of  the  radiation  of  suf- 


13 "  Sparks  from  a  Geologist's  Hammer/'  pp.  244-245. 

"Israel  C.  Russell,  "Glaciers  of  North  America,"  pp.  139,  144-145. 
James  D.  Dana,  "  Man.  of  Geo.,"  4th  ed.,  p.  977.  G.  Frederick  Wright, 
"Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North  Atlantic,"  pp.  206-207, 
369-370.  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  Geo.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  329-330, 
336-337. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  113 

ficient  hea^t  to  cause,  the  vapors  from  the  south  to  turn  to 
snow.  When  this  point  was  finally  reached  the  area  of 
precipitation  was  south  of  the  arctic  circle.  The  fact  here 
clearly  stated  proves  conclusively  that  the  cause  of  the  Ice 
age  was  some  other  than  the  gradual  lowering  of  temperature, 
such  as  might  have  been  brought  about  by  a  depletion  of  the 
carbon  dioxide  of  the  atmosphere,  or  by  elevation  of  the  con- 
tinental masses.  The  distribution  of  the  ice  during  the 
Glacial  period  was  not  such  as  to  indicate  a  gradual  exten- 
sion of  it  from  the  north  pole,  but  rather  its  accumulation 
upon  centres  many  degrees  to  the  south. 

There  was  a  northern  limitation  and  there  was  a  southern 
limitation.  The  continental  ice  belts  reached  40°  of  lati- 
tude. If  no  influence  existed  to  prevent  the  cold  from  this 
region  descending  southward,  it  would  seem  certain  that  it 
would  have  done  so.  Sympathetic  glaciation  would  surely 
have  reached  the  equator.  All  tropical  vegetation  would 
have  been  exterminated.  Since  it  was  not,  it  follows  that  a 
preventive  cause  must  have  existed.  The  survival  of  in- 
numerable tropical  plants  shows  that  the  Glacial  age  was  not 
a  period  of  universal  cold. 

JSFow,  the  preventive  cause  of  southern  invasion  was  the  belt 
of  tropical  or  semi-tropical  heat  girding  the  earth  under  the 
greenhouse  roof  at  about  the  35°  of  latitude.  At  first  this 
canopy  formed  one  blanket  from  the  35°  of  south  latitude 
to  a  like  latitude  in  the  north,  but  as  time  went  on  it  is 
further  postulated  that  the  sky  cleared  at  the  equator,  leaving 
a  northern  and  a  southern  belt.  Under  these  conditions  the 
high  lands  between  the  belts  also  became  somewhat  glaciated. 
Thus  the  hypothesis  we  are  considering  accounts  for  a  vast 
storehouse  of  heat,  where  vapor  was  formed,  which  in  turn 
furnished  the  material  for  deluges  of  rain  and  great  storms 
of  snow.  Accumulation  of  ice  north  of  the  protected  belt 
established  the  ice-sheets,  and  at  a  much  later  period  local 
glaciation  began  to  appear  on  the  mountains  to  the  south. 
8 


114  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

The  cold  and  warm  zones,  brought  thus  into  juxtaposition, 
gave  rise  to  cyclonic  convulsions  upon  a  scale  which  the 
ordinary  operations  of  nature  cannot  begin  to  parallel. 

The  final  breaking  up  of  the  belt  caused  the  sympathetic 
glaciation  above  referred  to  to  invade  the  whole  earth.  As 
an  illustration  of  how  this  would  have  occurred,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  know  that  "the  small  precipitation  in  Greenland — 
commonly  stated  to  be  only  about  ten  inches  annually  on  and 
near  the  coast — renders  it  quite  probable  that  if  the  ice  were 
once  melted  away,  it  would  not,  under  present  conditions, 
accumulate*  again."  17  We  have  already  quoted  the  same 
author  as  saying: 

"  Under  the  influence  of  heat  ice  melts,  but  in  melting 
it  consumes  an  enormous  amount  of  force.  In  order  to  melt 
one  cubic  foot  of  ice  as  much  heat  is  required  as  would  heat  a 
cubic  foot  of  water  from  the  freezing-point  to  176°  Fahr., 
or  two  cubic  feet  to  88°  Fahr.  To  melt  a  layer  of  ice  a 
foot  thick  will  therefore  use  up  as  much  heat  as  would  raise 
a  layer  of  water  two  feet  thick  to  the  temperature  of  88° 
Fahr. ;  and  the  effect  becomes  still  more  easily  understood  if 
we  estimate  it  as  applied  to  air,  for  to  melt  a  layer  of  ice  only 
one  and  a  half  inch  thick  would  require  as  much  heat  as  would 
raise  a  stratum  of  air  eight  hundred  feet  thick  from  the 
freezing-point  to  the  tropical  heat  of  88°  Fahr.  We  thus 
obtain  a  good  idea  both  of  the  wonderful  power  of  snow  and 
ice  in  keeping  down  temperature,  and  also  the  reason  why 
it  takes  so  long  a  time  to  melt  away,  and  is  able  to  go  on 
accumulating  to  such  an  extent  as  to  become  permanent."  18 

James  Geikie  says :  "  Every  one,  indeed,  has  heard  of 
the  heat  of  the  arctic  sun,  which  shines  day  and  night  during 
the  whole  summer-tide.  But  despite  the  sun's  power  the 


"  Wright,   "  Greenland   Icefields   and   Life  in  the   North  Atlantic," 
p.  367. 

18 "  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  406. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  ICE  AGES  115 

mean  temperature  of  summer  in  North  Greenland  does  not 
exceed  one  or  two  degrees  above  freezing-point,  and  this  is 
entirely  owing  to  the  presence  of  snow  and  ice."  19 

We  can  understand  from  these  citations  how  it  was  that 
glaciation  reached  the  tropics.  When  the  canopy  finally 
dispersed  it  was  like  removing  a  wall  or  dam  which  had 
stopped  or  held  in  check  the  cooling  currents  which  obtained 
their  low  degree  of  temperature  from  the  vast  accumulations 
of  ice  to  the  north,  and  which  had  already  invaded  the  lower 
latitudes.  The  duration  of  this  southern  glaciation,  how- 
ever, was  short-lived.  The  sun  got  in  its  work .  in  time  to 
save  the  tropical  forms  of  life,  but  not  in  time  to  prevent 
the  migration  of  certain  arctic  species  from  the  one  zone  to 
the  other. 

In  connection  with  the  fact  of  the  migration  of  arctic 
species,  Sir  Robert  Ball  tells  us  that  "  we  have  the  high 
authority  of  Sir  J.  Hooker  for  the  remarkable  fact  that  a 
great  number  of  the  flowering  plants  in  Patagonia  are  either 
identical  with  or  closely  allied  to  plants  in  temperate  North 
America  and  Europe.  To  realize  the  significance  of  this 
fact,  consider  not  so  much  that  Patagonia  and  Northern 
Europe  are  separated  by  thousands  of  miles  of  land  and  sea, 
as  that  between  them  lies  the  torrid  zone,  in  which  these 
plants  adapted  to  temperate  regions  could  not  live.  There  is 
no  continuity  between  the  flora  of  Patagonia  and  that  of 
North  America,  for  equatorial  America  is  a  barrier  through 
which  such  organisms  could  not  pass.  How,  then,  are  we  to 
explain  the  community  of  botanical  forms  in  two  regions  so 
remote  ?  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  these  separate  floras 
can  have  sprung  independently  into  being,  for  all  analogies 
of  nature  demonstrate  that  they  must  have  had  some  common 
source.  The  glacial  theory  is  at  hand  to  render  an  explana- 
tion of  the  facts."  20 


"The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  p.  800. 
20 "The  Cause  of  an  Ice  Age,"  p.   146. 


116  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Ball  supported  the  Crollian  hypothesis,  and  his  explana- 
tion of  these  facts  is  not  very  satisfactory.  T.  G.  Bonney, 
along  with  many  others,  tells  us  that  "  the  extension  of  the 
glaciers  on  Mount  Kenya  (19,500)  is  specially  interesting, 
because  its  position  (almost  on  the  equator)  suggests  a  pos- 
sible refrigeration  of  the  earth  as  a  whole  rather  than  of 
its  hemispheres  alternately.  Formerly  its  glaciers  de- 
scended to  a  height  of  about  9,800  feet  above  sea-level,  or 
their  end  was  about  9,700  feet  vertical  beneath  the  summit, 
instead  of  about  4,000  feet,  as  at  present.  Kenya,  in  those 
days,  must  have  presented  conditions  generally  corresponding 
with  those  of  a  peak  in  the  Alps  rising  to  a  height  of  about 
14,000  feet  (where  the  snow-line  is  about  8,000  feet,  or  6,000 
below  the  summit).  On  Kenya  formerly  this  line  should 
have  been  not  far  from  13,500  feet  above  the  sea,  and  its 
present  level  must  be  about  15,000  feet;  a  difference  which 
roughly  corresponds  with  a  lowering  of  temperature 
amounting  to  5°." 

That  which  is  true  of  the  recent  Pleistocene  glaciation 
is  likewise  true  of  those  which  occurred  in  remote  geological 
ages.  "  Evidence  has  been  adduced  from  the  Carboniferous 
times,"  says  Archibald  Geikie,  "  to  support  the  view  that  in 
spite  of  the  genial  temperature  indicated  by  the  vegetation 
there  were  glaciers  even  in  tropical  and  sub-tropical  regions. 
Coarse  boulder-conglomerates  and  striated  stones  have  been 
cited  from  various  parts  of  India,  South  Africa,  and  eastern 
Australia,  as  evidence  of  ice-action."  21 


.,  3d  ed.,  p.  809. 


CHAPTER  X 

SYMPATHETIC  FEATURES 

THEEE  were  a  great  many  other  sympathetic  features 
connected  with  the  Ice  age  upon  which  the  present  hypothesis 
throws  light.  II.  W.  Pearson's  views  relative  to  the  drift- 
wood origin  of  coal,  accounting  for,  as  they  do,  the  remains 
of  the  plants  grown  in  situ,  might  be  transferred  bodily  into 
this  volume.1  Both  hypotheses,  though  they  are  as  far  apart 
as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  in  their  primary  conceptions, 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  ice  caused  the  inundations  re- 
quired to  accumulate  the  vast  deposits  of  the  Carboniferous, 
and  is  responsible  also  for  the  phenomenon  of  the  raised 
beaches  of  the  several  geological  ages  involved. 

These  views  have  been  held  more  or  less  definitely  by 
'many  others.  Thus,  Professor  Penck  "  thinks  it  likely  that 
the  pluvial  periods,  of  which  there  is  evidence  in  many  of 
the  deserts  of  the  world,  were  contemporaneous  with  ice- 
advances,  and  that  desiccation  phenomena  accompanied  inter- 
glacial  epochs."  2 

The  phenomena  of  desiccation  seem  to  have  been  first 
cousins  of  the  pluvial  manifestations.  We  would  point  out 
that  no  other  hypothesis  than  the  one  now  before  us  can 
explain  how  it  is  that  within  a  range  of  a  few  hundred  miles 
these  two  extremes  should  be  contrasted,  and  yet  there  is 
geological  evidence  to  show  that  such  were  the  actual 
conditions. 

Frederick  S.  Dellenbaugh  says  of  the  Grand  Canyon  of 
the  Colorado  that  "  the  inner  gorge  appears  to  have  been  cut 
far  more  rapidly  than  the  outer  one,  and  at  a  much  later 

"   *  Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1683,  April  4,  1908. 

2  Geographical   Journal,    Feb.    1906,    pp.    182-187.      The  Journal  of 
Geology,  vol.  xiv,  No.  6,  Sept.-Oct.,  1906,  p.  570. 

117 


118  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

period.  Were  this  not  the  case,  there  would  be  no  inner 
gorge.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  some  side  canyons — the 
Kanab,  for  example — while  now  possessing  no  running  water, 
or  at  best  a  puny  rivulet,  and  depending  for  their  corrasion 
on  intermittent  floods,  meet  on  equal  terms  the  great  Colo- 
rado, the  giant  that  never  for  a  second  ceases  its  ferocious 
attack.  *  *  *  A  suspicion  arises,  on  contemplating  some  of 
these  apparent  discrepancies,  that  the  prevailing  conditions 
of  corrasion  are  not  what  they  were  at  some  earlier  period, 
when  they  were  such  that  it  was  rendered  more  rapid  and 
violent ;  that  there  was  perhaps  an  epoch  when  these  deep-cut 
tributary  canyons  carried  perennial  streams,  and  when  the 
volume  of  the  Colorado  itself  was  many  times  greater,  pos- 
sessing a  multiplied  corrasive  power,  while  the  adjacent  areas 
were  about  as  arid  as  now."  3  Dellenbaugh,  who  was  one 
of  the  members  of  Major  J.  W.  Powell's  second  expedition, 
undoubtedly  correctly  surmises  that  the  cause  of  the  addi- 
tional corrasive  power  was  increased  precipitation  on  the 
mountain  summits  during  the  Glacial  epoch.  We  might  add, 
the  result  of  the  sympathetic  glaciation.  The  significant 
point  is  that  the  region  of  the  canyons,  according  to  the  evi- 
dence, was  then  as  arid  as  at  present.  The  inference  is 
obvious :  the  region  in  question  lay  under  the  protecting  belt, 
hence,  though  great  quantities  of  moisture  were  in  the  air, 
geologically  speaking  the  area  was  one  of  desiccation. 

Like  conditions  naturally  prevailed  in  the  remote  geolog- 
ical ages  when  other  belts  caused  other  glaciations.  Thus 
the  problems  of  the  Permian  are  summed  up  by  Chamberlin 
and  Salisbury,  and  we  would  point  out  that  desiccation  under 
the  canopy  belt  existed  then  just  as  it  existed  in  the  Pleisto- 
cene. The  joint  authors  say: 

"Between  a  marvelous  deployment  of  glaciation,  a 
strangely  dispersed  deposition  of  salt  and  gypsum,  an  extra- 


8 "The  Romance  of  the  Colorado  River,"  pp.  46-47. 


SYMPATHETIC  FEATURES  119 

ordinary  development  of  red  beds,  a  decided  change  in  ter- 
restrial vegetation,  a  great  depletion  of  marine  life,  a 
remarkable  shifting  of  geographic  outlines,  and  a  pronounced 
stage  of  crustal  folding,  the  events  of  the  Permian  period 
constitute  a  climacteric  combination.  Each  of  these  phe- 
nomena brings  its  own  unsolved  questions,  while  their 
combination  presents  a  plexus  of  problems  of  unparalleled 
difficulty.  More  than  any  other  period  since  the  Cambrian, 
the  Permian  is  the  period  of  problems.  With  little  doubt 
these  marked  phenomena  were  related  to  one  another,  and 
their  elucidation  is  quite  sure  to  be  found  in  a  common 
group  of  cooperative  agencies.  While  it  is  too  much  to  hope 
for  a  full  elucidation  at  once,  there  is  no  occasion  to  blink  the 
facts  or  evade  the  issues  they  raise."  4 

Evaporation  is  akin  to  desiccation,  and  this  took  place 
under  the  zonal  belts.  Precipitation  occurred  in  the  open 
zones,  outside  the  influence  of  the  protecting  canopy.  Under 
these  conditions  salt  deposits  could  be  formed  in  one  region 
while  in  an  adjacent  territory  torrential  floods  were  accom- 
plishing their  work. 

As  this  hypothesis  has  no  occasion  to  evade  an  issue  raised, 
the  phenomena  of  crustal  folding  and  kindred  questions  next 
attract  attention.  Undoubtedly  they  were  of  a  sympathetic 
nature,  elucidation  of  the  one  great  cause  opening  the  way  for 
a  discussion  of  the  cooperative  agencies. 

According  to  Professor  G.  Pozzi,  the  principal  volcanic 
outbreaks  of  Italy  are  of  the  Glacial  period.5  Professor 
Wright  says :  "  The  connection  of  lava-flows  on  the  Pacific 
coast  with  the  Glacial  period  is  unquestionably  close.  For 
some  reason  which  we  do  not  fully  understand,  the  vast  ac- 
cumulation of  ice  in  North  America  during  the  Glacial 
period  is  correlated  with  enormous  eruptions  of  lava  west  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and,  in  connection  with  these  events, 

4Geo.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  655-656. 

5Atti  Linci,  3d  ser.,  vol.  ii    (1878),  p.  35. 


120  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

there  took  place  on  the  Pacific  coast  an  almost  entire  change 
in  the  plants  and  animals  occupying  the  regions."  6 

The  same  author  says  of  the  columnar  outflows  of  basalt  of 
Disco  Island  and  contiguous  and  more  northern  islands  along 
the  Greenland  coast :  "  The  date  of  these  lava  outflows  was 
approximately  the  same  with  similar  or  even  grander  volcanic 
action  in  the  Faroe  Islands,  Iceland,  and  the  region  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains  in  Oregon  and  Washington."  7 

Chamber]  in  and  Salisbury  give  the  following  summary 
of  the  evidence  in  America :  "  There  are  lava-flows  and 
cinder  cones  of  Quaternary  age  in  ~New  Mexico,  Colorado, 
Utah,  Nevada,  Oregon,  Idaho,  Washington,  and  at  various 
points  in  the  Sierras.  On  many  of  them  vegetation  has 
hardly  begun  to  gain  a  foothold.  Gilbert  estimates  that  of 
250  lava  fields  observed  in  these  states  15  per  cent,  are  of 
Pleistocene  age,  and  of  the  350  volcanic  cones  in  the  same 
States,  60  per  cent,  are  considered  to  be  Pleistocene.  Vol- 
canic ash  is*  interbedded  with  loess  at  various  points  in 
eastern  Washington  and  Oregon,  and  overlies  glacial 
moraines  in  some  parts  of  Alaska.  Glacier  Peak,  Washing- 
ton, is  the  remnant  of  a  volcano  formed  after  the  elevation 
of  the  base-leveled  tract.  Mount  Eainier  dates  from  about 
the  same  time."  8 

Associated  as  these  instances  were  with  the  Glacial 
period,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  redistribution  of  the 
land,  caused  by  the  heaping  up  of  the  ice,  was  the  proximate 
cause.9  The  ice  depressed  the  Champlain  valley  about  200 


6 "Man  and  the  Glacial  Period/'  2d  ed.,  p.   301. 

7 "  Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  North  Atlantic,"  p.  208. 

8Geo.,  vol.  iii,  p.  479. 

9N.  S.  Shaler,  "Depression  of  the  Terrestrial  Surface  Caused  by 
Accumulation  of  Ice-Sheets."  Proc.  Boston  Nat.  Hist.  Soc.,  xvii,  p. 
288.  T.  F.  Jamieson,  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.,  1882,  and  Geol.  Mag., 
1882,  pp.  400,  526.  Fisher,  "Physics  of  Earth's  Crust,"  p.  223.  A. 
Geikie,  Geo.,  3d  ed.,  p.  295.  G.  Frederick  Wright,  "The  Ice  Age  in 
North  America,"  4th  ed.,  pp.  368,  369,  573,  576,  586,  595,  616,  618. 


SYMPATHETIC  FEATURES  121 

feet,  and  it  is  generally  conceded  that  the  whole  St.  Lawrence 
region  must  have  stood  some  hundreds  of  feet  lower  than  now. 
Where  did  the  crushed  out  or  displaced  strata  go  ? 

"  These  relations  between  the  amount  of  post-glacial  ele- 
vation and  the  centre  of  the  icefield  have  led  to  the  hypothesis 
'(1)  that  the  low  altitude  of  the  land  at  the  close  of  the  last 
glacial  epoch  was  the  result  of  sinking  caused  by  the  great 
load  of  ice,  and  that  the  sinking  was  greatest  where  the  ice 
was  thickest;  and  (2)  that  the  rise  of  the  land  since  the 
glacial  period  is  the  result  of  the  removal  of  the  load  of  ice, 
and  that  the  resilience  was  greatest  where  the  depression 
was  greatest,  namely,  where  the  ice  was  thickest.  This 
hypothesis,  which  makes  the  crust  of  the  earth  responsive  to 
]oad,  is  the  doctrine  of  isostasy. 

"  Attempts  have  been  made  to  test  this  hypothesis  in 
various  ways.  The  result  of  all  investigations  thus  far 
carried  out  seems  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that  it  contains 
a  truth,  and  that  load,  or  the  removal  of  load,  affecting  a 
great  area,  is  a  real  cause  of  crustal  movement.  It  is  not  to 
be  inferred,  however,  that  this  responds  promptly  or  uni- 
formly to  it.  It  is  probable  that  other  forces  originate  crustal 
oscillation,  or  may  limit,  delay,  or  defeat  the  movement  which 
load  or  its  removal  would  tend  to  produce."  10 

After  the  ice  disappeared  the  ocean  invaded  the  Cham- 
plain  depression,  but,  the  load  having  been  removed,  the  land 
began  to  return  to  its  normal  elevation.  "  The  conclusion 
that  the  northern  lands  were  lower  than  now  when  the  ice 
melted  carries  with  it  the  farther  conclusion  that  the  land 
has  since  risen,  relative  to  the  sea  level.  Much  other  evi- 
dence, gathered  from  a  wide  range  of  territory,  points  to  the 
same  conclusion.  Not  only  this,  but  the  post-glacial  rise  of 
the  land  seems  to  have  been  greater,  as  the  centre  of  the 
icefield  is  approached,  and  amounts  to  as  much  as  1,000  feet 


10 "  Glacial  Gteo.  of  N.  J.,  vol.  v,  Final  Report,  pp.  200,  201. 


122  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

or  more  near  the  centre  of  the  field."  n  The  time  factor  of 
this  dynamic  oscillation  was  certainly  much  faster  than  is 
generally  realized.12 

Load  was  only  one  of  the  proximate  factors  resulting 
from  the  atmospheric  belts,  that  caused  plutonic  and  other 
terrestrial  disturbances.  All  the  most  pronounced  mani- 
festations of  vulcanism  occurred  at  periods  when  the  belted 
canopy  was  undergoing  some  form  of  change.  Thus  during 
the  Tertiary  vast  floods  of  lava  were  poured  out  in  both  the 
Old  and  the  ISTew  Worlds.  Going  still  further  back,  like 
phenomena  mark  the  later  parts  of  the  Cretaceous,  and  it  is 
the  same  story  in  the  still  more  remote  ages.13  The  immedi- 
ate cause  of  these  outbreaks  was  undoubtedly  the  weight  of 
ice  and  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere.  But  these  factors 
only  acted  on  the  critical  region  (anamorphic  zone)  of  rock 
flowage.  Be  it  remembered  we  advocate  a  rigid  earth. 

Archibald  Geikie,  in  this  connection,  says :  "  Leaving 
for  the  present  the  general  question  of  the  cause  of  volcanic 
action,  it  may  be  here  remarked  that  the  conditions  determin- 
ing any  particular  eruption  are  still  unknown.  The  explo- 
sions of  a  volcano  may  be  to  some  extent  regulated  by  the 
conditions  of  atmospheric  pressure  over  the  area  at  the  time. 
In  the  case  of  a  volcanic  funnel  like  Stromboli,  where,  as 
Scrope  pointed  out,  the  expansive  subterranean  force  within, 
and  the  repressive  effect  of  atmospheric  pressure  without,  just 
balance  each  other,  any  serious  disturbance  of  that  pressure 
might  be  expected  to  make  itself  evident  by  a  change  in  the 
condition  of  the  volcano.  Accordingly,  it  has  long  been 
remarked  by  fishermen  of  the  Lipari  Islands  that  in  stormy 


11  Ibid.,  p.  200. 

12  For  figures  relative  to  this  interesting  phenomenon,  see  New  York 
State  Museum,  Bui.  84,  Geo.  8,  pp.  236-238. 

13  A.  Geikie,  Geo.,  3d  ed.,  pp.  258,  973.     James  D.  Dana,  Manual 
of  Geo.,  4th  ed.,  pp.  299-300,  365-366,  392.    Joseph  Le  Conte,  Geo.,  5th 
ed.,   p.   525. 


SYMPATHETIC  FEATURES  123 

weather  there  is  at  Stromboli  a  more  copious  discharge  of 
steam  and  stones  than  in  fine  weather.  They  make  use  of 
the  cone  as  a  weather-glass,  the  increase  of  its  activity  indi- 
cating a  falling,  and  the  diminution  a  rising,  barometer.  In 
like  manner,  Etna,  according  to  Sartorius  von  Waltershausen, 
is  more  active  in  the  winter  months.  Mr.  Coan  has  indicated 
a  relation  between  the  eruptions  of  Kilauea  and  the  rainy 
seasons  of  Hawaii,  most  of  the  discharges  of  that  crater 
taking  place  within  the  four  months  from  March  to  June. 

"  When  we  remember  the  connection,  now  indubitably 
established,  between  a  more  copious  discharge  of  fire-damp  in 
mines  and  a  lowering  of  atmospheric  pressure,  we  may  be 
prepared  to  find  a  similar  influence  affecting  the  escape  of 
vapors  from  the  upper  surface  of  the  lava-column  of  a  vol- 
cano ;  for  it  is  not  so  much  to  the  lava  itself  as  to  the  expan- 
sive vapors  impregnating  it  that  the  manifestations  of 
volcanic  activity  are  due.  Among  the  Yesuvian  eruptions 
since  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  number  which 
took  place  in  winter  and  spring  has  been  to  that  of  those 
which  broke  out  in  summer  and  autumn  as  7  to  4.  In  Japan 
also  the  greater  number  of  recorded  eruptions  have  taken 
place  during  the  cold  months  of  the  year,  February  to 
April.  *  *  * 

"  The  greater  frequency  of  Japanese  volcanic  eruptions 
and  earthquakes  in  winter  has  been  referred  in  explanation 
to  the  fact  that  the  average  barometric  gradient  across  Japan 
is  steeper  in  winter  than  in  summer,  while  the  piling  up  of 
snow  in  the  northern  regions  gives  rise  to  long-continued 
stresses,  in  consequence  of  which  certain  lines  of  weakness  in 
the  earth's  crust  are  more  prepared  to  give  way  during  the 
winter  months  than  they  are  in  summer."  14 


14  Geo.,  3d  ed.,  pp.  205-206. 


CHAPTER  XI 

RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE 

THIS  chapter  is  introduced  to  show  that  the  last  stages 
of  the  ice  invasion  were  of  such  recent  date  that  man,  includ- 
ing even  civilized  man,  was  a  witness  of  the  grand  phenomena 
of  the  belted  canopy.  The  demonstration  of  this  point  is 
very  important,  as  its  establishment  admits  before  the  court 
the  evidence  locked  up  in  the  mythological  tales,  the  fossil 
thought  of  those  ancient  days,  which  has  come  down  to  us  as 
an  echo.  It  is  generally  admitted  by  the  scientists  that  man 
lived  on  the  earth  during  the  Pleistocene,  therefore  in  a 
measure  this  chapter  is  unnecessary,  but  that  the  lay  mind 
may  find  it  easier  to  follow  the  argument,  and  that  no  link 
may  be  wanting,  especially  at  such  an  important  junction,  it 
seems  best  to  present  a  general  outline  of  the  evidence. 
Further,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  remnants  of  the  belts 
probably  survived  in  the  heavens  long  after  the  ice  disap- 
peared. Now,  since  man  lived  in  the  Pleistocene,  he  saw 
the  system  in  its  glory,  and  as  it  is  assumed  that  remnants 
remained  until  a  much  later  period,  he  saw  the  decline  and 
fall  of  the  same,  the  Ragnarok  of  his  gods. 

The  popular  idea  that  the  Ice  age  occurred  at  a  very 
remote  date,  humanly  speaking,  lives  on  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  science  has  controverted  the  data  on  which  it  was  orig- 
inally founded.  Estimates  of  this  character  are  based  more 
or  less  on  three  worn-out  theories:  (1)  Ly ell's  principle  of 
uniformity  in  Nature's  operations,  which  has  led  to  an 
exaggerated  estimate  of  the  Glacial  age,  in  order  to  proportion 
it  to  the  other  events  in  geologic  time;  (2)  Croll's  hypothesis 
of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  (now  generally  dis- 
credited) ;  (3)  Darwin's  system  of  evolution,  which  requires 

124 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      125 

long  periods  of  time  for  the  development  of  new  species  from 
a  parent  stem.  De  Vries  removes  this  difficulty,  as  his 
"  mutants  "  fulfil  all  requirements  for  the  shortening  of  the 
time  element. 

The  data  we  are  now  after  are  those  of  the  withdrawal  of 
the  last  of  the  ice  from  the  centre  of  glaciation.  In  one 
sense  the  age  is  not  yet  over;  the  glaciers,  especially  those 
of  Alaska,  are  still  receding.  But  this  slow  recession,  while 
it  shows  that  the  date  of  heavy  glaciation  was  recent,  is  of 
little  value  in  the  present  connection,  for  it  only  demonstrates 
the  tenacity  with  which  cold  stored  up  in  the  past  has  en- 
dured. It  does  not  show  that  the  cause  itself  still  existed 
until  recent  time.  In  order  to  find  out  what  this  date  may 
be,  we  want  to  determine  the  approximate  date  of  the  first 
withdrawal  of  ice  from  the  southern  border  of  the  ice  sheet. 
To  that  end  we  introduce  the  following  testimony. 

Prestwich  places  a  rough  estimate  within  the  limits  of 
6,000  to  12,000  years  as  necessary  for  the  wearing  back  along 
the  coast-line  of  certain  cliffs  since  the  glacial  submergence  in 
the  soft  Cretaceous,  Oolitic,  and  Liassic  strata  in  the  South 
of  England.1  The  evidence  from  weathering  in  America 
confirms  this.  T.  C.  Chamberlin,  State  Geologist  of  Wis- 
consin, says :  "  ~No  sensible  denudation  had  taken  place  there 
since  glacial  times."  2 

H.  Carville  Lewis  says  in  connection  with  the  striae  on 
Cannon  Hill,  Kerry,  Ireland :  "  At  the  present  day  the 
northwest  winds  are  the  wet  winds.  The  winds  were  the 
same  in  the  time  of  the  local  glaciers.  The  marks  are  so 
fresh  that  they  may  not  be  over  5,000  years  old."  3  "  In 
Europe,  likewise,  numerous  estimates  of  the  lapse  of  time 


iaOn    Certain    Phenomena    Belonging   to    the    Close    of    the   Last 
Geological  Period,  etc.,"  p.  71. 
*Geo.  of  Wis.,  vol.  ii,  p.  632. 
8 "The  Glacial  Geo.  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,"  pp.  93,  94. 


126  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

since  the  Glacial  period,  as  collated  by  Hansew,  are  found 
to  be  comprised  between  the  limits  of  5,000  and  12,000 
years."  4 

Material  comprising  deposits  of  the  Glacial  age  is  very 
slightly  oxidized  and  disintegration  is  very  slightly  advanced, 
even  when  said  deposits  occupy  exposed  positions.  All  this 
indicates  that  the  lapse  of  time  has  not  been  long.  ¥fce  late 
Professor  White,^of  the  Pennsylvania  Geological  Survey,  de- 
scribes freshly  preserved  leaves  at  great  depths  which  he 
found  in  terraces  on  the  Monongahela  River.  He  also  de- 
scribes a  certain  pebble  which  he  found  near  the  Big  Sandy, 
and  which  is  peculiarly  liable  to  disintegration,  nevertheless 
his  specimens  were  in  good  condition.  "  There  is  not  space 
to  mention  the  many  other  places  where  wood  is  reported  in 
the  modified  drift  filling  what  are  perhaps  preglacial  torrents, 
and  which  may  therefore  have  been  transported  a  long  dis- 
tance from  their  native  place.  One  such  was  reported  to 
me  in  the  valley  of  Raccoon  Creek,  in  Granville,  Licking 
County,  Ohio,  and  but  a  few  miles  from  the  glaciated  border. 
This  was  found  ninety-four  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
terrace,  which  would  bring  it  about  forty  feet  below  the 
present  bed  of  the  stream.  A  few  miles  farther  up  in  this 
same  valley  so  many  red-cedar  logs  were  formerly  found 
beneath  the  glacial  terraces  along  the  valley,  and  the  wood  was 
so  fresh,  that  a  flourishing  business  was  for  a  while  carried 
on  in  manufacturing  household  utensils  from  them.  Red 
cedar  is  not  found  in  that  region  now,  and  these  logs  are 
probably  of  the  same  period  with  those  described  as  found 
in  true  glacial  till  in  Butler  County,  and  which  are  so  fresh 
as  to  preserve  still  the  peculiar  odor  of  the  wood. 

"  Professor  Collett  reports  that  all  through  that  portion 
of  southwestern  Indiana  included  within  the  glacial  boundary 
there  are  found,  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet 


4  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxviii,  No.  4,  p.  243. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      127 

below  the  surface,  peat,  muck,  rotted  stumps,  branches  and 
leaves  of  trees,  and  that  these  accumulations  sometimes  occur 
through  a  thickness  of  from  two  to  twenty  feet. 

"  We  may  mention  also,  as  probably  connected  with  the 
period  of  the  ice-dam  at  Cincinnati,  the  well-preserved 
organic  remains  found  in  the  high-level  terraces  of  various 
tributaries  of  the  upper  Ohio.  In  the  vicinity  of  Morgan- 
town,  Professor  I.  C.  White,  as  already  noted,  reports  that 
in  the  terraces  which  he  connects  with  the  period  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati ice-dam  the  leaves  of  our  common  forest-trees  are 
most  beautifully  preserved  some  distance  below  the  surface, 
and  that  logs  of  wood  in  a  semi-rotted  condition  were  encoun- 
tered seventy  feet  below  the  surface."  5 

Very  little  erosion  has  taken  place  since  the  Kames  of 
Scotland  or  America  were  deposited,  and  in  both  these  locali- 
ties these  peculiar  relics  of  the  Glacial  period  retain  their 
sharpness  of  outline.  "  When,  also,  one  considers  the 
chemical  agencies  at  work  to  decompose  the  rocks  everywhere 
protected  by  a  covering  of  till,  the  freshness  of  the  glaciated 
surfaces  never  ceases  to  be  a  cause  of  astonishment.  *  *  * 

"  Closely  connected  with  the  preceding  class  of  facts  are 
the  observations  made  upon  the  extent  to  which  the  lakes, 
dating  from  the  Glacial  period,  have  been  filled  with  sedi- 
ment. Little  reflection  is  required  to  make  it  evident  that 
our  present  lake-basins  could  not  always  have  existed;  for, 
except  where  counteracting  agencies  are  at  work,  the  '  wash ? 
of  the  hills  will  in  due  time  fill  to  the  brim  all  inclosed  areas 
of  depression.  Mr.  Upham,  of  the  Minnesota  Geological 
Survey,  expresses  surprise  at  the  small  extent  to  which  the 
numerous  lakes  of  that  State  have  been  filled  with  the  sedi- 
ment continually  washing  into  them.  e  The  lapse  of  time 
since  the  Ice  age  has  been  insufficient  for  rains  and  streams 
to  fill  these  basins  with  sediment,  or  to  cut  outlets  low  enough 


B "  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  493. 


128  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

to  drain  them,  though  in  many  instances  we  can  see  such 
changes  going  forward.'  6 

"  Dr.  E.  Andrews,  of  Chicago,  has  made  calculations, 
deserving  of  more  attention  than  they  have  had,  concerning 
the  rate  at  which  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  are  eating 
into  the  shores  and  washing  the  sediment  into  deeper  water 
or  toward  the  southern  end  of  the  lake.7  The  United  States 
Coast  Survey  have  carefully  sounded  the  lake  in  all  its  parts, 
and  have  ascertained  the  width  of  the  area  of  shallow  water 
extending  inward  from  the  shores.  It  is  well  known  that 
waves  are  limited  in  their  downward  action,  so  that  there  will 
be  a  surrounding  shelf,  or  shoulder  of  shallow  water,  in  cases 
where  the  waves  of  a  deep  lake  are  eroding  its  banks.  This 
fringe  of  shallow  water  encircling  Lake  Michigan  is  only  a 
few  miles  wide;  and  from  such  data  as  have  been  gathered, 
the  average  rate  of  erosion  is  found  to  be  as  much  as  five  or 
six  feet  per  annum ;  which  would  indicate  that  the  lake-basins 
had  not  been  in  existence  more  than  seventy-five  hundred 
years."  3 

The  author  from  whom  we  have  just  quoted  enters  into  a 
lengthy  discussion  of  the  date  of  the  Glacial  period,9  from 
which  we  cite  the  following : 

"  Seven  thousand  years  may,  with  a  good  deal  of  confi- 
dence, be  taken  as  the  age  of  the  lower  part  of  the  Niagara 
gorge.  This,  of  course,  does  not  take  us  back  to  the  period 
when  the  front  of  the  glacier  lay  in  the  headwaters  of  the 
Delaware  and  the  Little  Miami  River,  and  when  glacial  floods 
were  depositing  the  gravel  at  Trenton,  'New  Jersey,  and  at 
Loveland  and  Madisonville,  Ohio,  and  where  Drs.  Abbott  and 
Metz  have  found  paleolithic  implements ;  but  it  does  bring  us 
back  to  within  a  comparatively  short  distance  of  that  period, 


"Minnesota  Geological  Report  for  1879,  p.  73. 
1 'American  Journal  of  Science,  vol.  xcviii,  1869,  pp.  172  et  seq. 
"Wright,  "The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  pp.  470-471. 
*IUd.,  pp.  448-505. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      129 

the  difference  being  merely  the  time  necessary  for  the  melting 
back  of  the  ice  from  the  summit  of  the  Gatskills  to  the 
southern  flanks  of  the  Adirondacks,  and  from  the  water- 
partings  of  the  Ohio  to  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Erie. 

"  A  second  typical  place  for  the  study  of  the  recession  of 
post-glacial  waterfalls  is  presented  in  the  gorge  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  below  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  at  Minneapolis. 
The  problem  here  presented  has  been  carefully  studied  by 
Professor  N.  li.  Winchell,  the  State  Geologist  of  Minnesota, 
who  thinks  he  can  pretty  closely  approximate  to  the  truth 
concerning  its  antiquity."  The  average  arrived  at  for  these 
calculations  is  7,803  years.10 

"  The  .Falls  of  St.  Anthony,"  says  Le  Conte,  "  recedes 
about  five  feet  per  annum,  and  has  made  its  gorge  in  about 
8,000  years."  1X 

Warren  Upham  arrives  at  a  somewhat  earlier  date, 
though  the  region  on  which  he  founds  his  conclusion  is  farther 
north.  He  writes :  "  Likewise  probably  the  uprise  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  basin  was  at  first  relatively  rapid,  so  that  it  all 
might  take  place  within  the  period  of  about  7,000  or  6,000 
years  which  is  indicated  for  Postglacial  time  in  that  part  of 
the  northern  United  States  and  Canada  by  Prof.  N.  li. 
Winchell,  in  his  studies  of  the  recession  of  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  with  which  my  studies  of  the  Niagara  falls  and 
gorge  well  coincide.  The  former  estimate  of  the  period  since 
the  Ice  age  as  tens  of  thousands  of  years,  still  advocated  by 
Gilbert  and  Woodworth,  is  opposed  by  a  great  range  of  well 
accordant  evidence  on  the  glacial  areas  of  both  North  America 
and  Europe."  12 

"  These  calculations  concerning  the  age  of  Niagara  and 
the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  are  amply  sustained  by  the  study  of 
various  minor  waterfalls  and  gorges  in  Ohio,  to  which  I  have 

™IMd.,  pp.  458,  464. 

"Elements,  5th  ed.,  p.  15. 

18  American  Geologist,  November,  1905,  vol.  xxxvi,  No.  5,  p.  288. 


130  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

myself  given  special  attention/'  says  Wright.  "  For  ex- 
ample, at  Elyria,  twenty-five  miles  west  of  Cleveland,  Black 
River  plunges  over  the  outcropping  Waverly  sandstone,  and 
flows  onward  to  the  lake  through  a  wide  valley  in  the  Erie 
shale,  which  was  doubtless  preglacial,  though  no  buried  chan- 
nel above  has  yet  been  discovered.  The  gorge  below  the  falls/ 
which  has  been  eroded  since  glacial  times,  and  which  approxi- 
mately represents  the  work  done  by  Black  River  during  that 
time,  is  only  a  trifle  over  two  thousand  feet  long.  The  water 
flowing  over  the  falls  represents  the  drainage  of  about  four 
hundred  square  miles,  and  the  sandstone  which  forms  the 
precipice  over  which  the  water  plunges  is  underlaid  by  soft 
shale  very  favorable  to  rapid  erosion."  13 

Warren  Upham  in  "  Popular  Astronomy  "  gives  the  fol- 
lowing data,  which  ably  summarize  what  has  already  been 
said.  He  remarks :  "  In  various  localities  we  are  able  to 
measure  the  present  rate  of  erosion  of  gorges  below  water- 
falls, and  the  length  of  the  postglacial  gorge  divided  by  the 
rate  of  recession  of  the  falls  gives  approximately  the  time 
since  the  Ice  age.  Such  measurements  of  the  gorge  and 
falls  of  St.  Anthony  by  Prof.  ~N.  H.  Winchell  show  the  length 
of  the  Postglacial  or  Recent  period  to  have  been  about  8,000 
years;  and  from  the  surveys  of  Niagara  Falls,  Prof.  G.  F. 
Wright  and  the  present  writer  believe  it  to  have  been  7,000 
years,  more  or  less.  From  the  rates  of  wave-cutting  along 
the  side  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  consequent  accumulation 
of  sand  around  the  south  end  of  the  lake,  Dr.  E.  Andrews 
estimates  that  the  land  there  became  uncovered  from  the 
ice-sheet  not  more  than  7,500  years  ago.  Prof.  Wright  ob- 
tains a  similar  result  from  the  rate  of  filling  of  kettle-holes 
among  the  gravel  knolls  and  ridges  called  kames  and  eskers, 
and  likewise  from  the  erosion  of  valleys  by  streams  tributary 
to  Lake  Erie;  and  Prof.  B.  K.  Emerson,  from  the  rate  of 


13 "  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  466. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      131 

deposition  of  modified  drift  in  the  Connecticut  Valley  at 
Northampton,  Mass.,  thinks  that  the  time  since  the  Glacial 
period  cannot  exceed  10,000  years.  An  equally  small  estimate 
is  also  indicated  by  the  studies  of  Gilbert  and  Russell  for  the 
time  since  the  highest  rise  of  the  Quaternary  lakes,  Bonne- 
ville  and  Lahontan,  lying  in  Utah  and  Nevada,  within  the 
arid  Great  Basin  of  interior  drainage,  which  are  believed  to 
have  been  contemporaneous  with  the  great  extension  of  ice- 
sheets  upon  the  northern  part  pf  our  continent.  *  *  * 

"  In  Wales  and  Yorkshire  the  amount  of  denudation  of 
limestone  rocks  on  which  boulders  lie  has  been  regarded  by 
Mr.  D.  Mackintosh  as  proof  that  a  period  of  not  more  than 
6,000  years  has  elapsed  since  the  boulders  were  left  in  their 
positions.  The  vertical  extent  of  this  denudation,  averaging 
about  six  inches,  is  nearly  the  same  with  that  observed  in  the 
southwest  part  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  by  Sir  William 
Logan  and  Dr.  Robert  Bell,  where  veins  of  quartz  marked 
with  glacial  stria3  stand  out  to  various  heights  not  exceeding 
one  foot  above  the  weathered  surface  of  the  inclosing  lime- 
stone. 

"  Another  indication  that  the  final  melting  of  the  ice- 
sheet  upon  British  America  was  separated  by  only  a  very 
short  interval,  geologically  speaking,  from  the  present  time, 
is  seen  in  the  wonderfully  perfect  preservation  of  the  glacial 
striation  and  polishing  on  the  surfaces  of  the  more  enduring 
rocks.  Of  their  character  in  one  noteworthy  district,  Dr. 
Bell  writes  as  follows :  '  On  Portland  promontory  on  the 
east  coast  of  Hudson's  Bay,  in  latitude  58°  and  southward, 
the  high  rocky  hills  are  completely  glaciated  and  bare.  The 
striae  are  as  fresh-looking  as  if  the  ice  had  left  them  only 
yesterday.  When  the  sun  bursts  upon  these  hills  after  they 
have  been  wet  by  the  rain,  they  glitter  and  shine  like  the 
tinned  roofs  of  the  city  of  Montreal.' 

"  From  this  wide  range  of  concurrent  but  independent 
testimonies,  we  may  accept  it  as  practically  demonstrated  that 


133  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  ice-sheets  disappeared  from  North  America  and  Europe 
some  6,000  to  10,000  years  ago."  14  Upham  also  remarks: 
"  Niagara  history  may  be  placed  in  round  numbers  between 
5,000  and  10,000  years."  15 

In  the  Final  Report  of  the  State  Geologist  of  New  Jersey 
the  following  concise  statement  occurs :  "  The  date  and 
duration  of  the  glacial  period  are  matters  of  the  greatest 
interest,  but  neither  has  been  determined  with  numerical 
exactness.  Many  lines  of  calculation,  all  of  them  confessedly 
more  or  less  uncertain,  point  to  the  retreat  of  the  last  ice-sheet 
from  the  northern  part  of  the  United  States  6,000  years  to 
10,000  years  ago.  While  these  figures  are  to  be  looked  upon 
as  estimates  only,  there  are  so  many  lines  of  evidence  pointing 
in  the  same  direction  that  the  recency  (geologically  speaking) 
of  the  last  glaciation  must  be  looked  on  as  established."  16 

Humphreys  and  Abbot  estimated  that  the  whole  delta  of 
the  Mississippi  had  been  laid  down  in  5,000  years.17  De 
Lanoye  gives  but  6,350  years  for  the  making  of  the  delta  of 
the  Nile.18 

The  recentness  of  the  date  of  the  waning  of  the  ice  having 
been  established,  a  few  citations  are  now  given  to  show  that 
man's  relics  have  been  found  in  widely  dispersed  regions  in 
formations  of  said  period,  and  also  that  deductions  founded 
on  this  assumption  are  borne  out  by  the  facts  of  ethnology. 

"  Geologic  archeology  in  Europe  demonstrates,"  says 
Warren  Upham,  "  man's  existence  there  before  the  culmina- 
tion of  the  Glacial  period,  and  indeed,  I  think,  before  its  be- 
ginning. From  my  examination  of  the  implement-bearing 
gravel  deposits  of  the  Somme  valley  in  northern  France, 
where  the  proofs  of  man's  great  geologic  antiquity  were  first 


14  Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1588. 
18  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxviii,  No.  4,  p.  243. 
"Vol.  v,  Glacial  Geo.,  p.  194. 

"Humphreys  and  Abbot,  Report  on  the  Mississippi  River,  1861. 
"De  Lanoye,  Ramsts  le  Grand  ou  I'Egypt  il  y  a  3300  ans,  trans., 
New  York,  1870. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      133 

recognized  and  published,  I  conclude  that  Paleolithic  men 
began  their  occupation  of  that  country  before  the  epoch  of 
great  elevation  of  the  lands  which  became  glaciated,  probably 
contemporaneously,  in  both  Europe  and  North  America."  19 

Frederick  S.  Dellenbaugh  says :  "  There  has  been  an 
error,  I  believe,  in  considering  the  Glacial  period  as  of  the 
remote  past.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  yet  closed.  It  influ- 
ences our  climate  now,  and  probably  a  thousand  years  ago 
its  meteorological  effects  were  marked  as  far  south  as  Yuca- 
tan. The  glaciers  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  everywhere 
appear  to  be  slowly  disappearing,  and  not  so  slowly  either,  if 
the  Muir  can  be  taken  as  a  gauge,  for  it  has  been  for  twenty 
years  receding  at  the  rate  of  500  feet  per  annum,  and  prob- 
ably at  the  same  rate  before  that.  However  this  may  be,  it  is 
probably  less  than  5,000  years  since  the  ice  front  was  at  Lake 
Erie.  Eminent  geologists  have  estimated  it  at  less  than 
7,000,  based  on  the  erosion  at  Niagara;  but  as  the  erosion 
immediately  following  the  disappearance  of  the  ice  is  ex- 
tremely rapid,  it  seems  safe  to  cut  down  the  estimate."  20 

Dellenbaugh  is  so  sure  of  the  recentness  of  the  Ice  age 
that  he  advances  the  following  argument  on  that  stone  for 
a  foundation.  He  reasons :  "  That  the  continent  was  en- 
tirely peopled  by  way  of  Behring  Strait  within  the  last 
thousand  years,  by  migration  through  a  zone  of  ice,  is 
improbable.  To  assume  that  a  population  came  over  and 
passed  down  to  Mexico  and  Yucatan  and  even  South  Amer- 
ica, carrying  with  them  their  arts,  but  not  exercising  them 
on  their  interminable  journey,  is  ridiculous.  No  pottery  has 
yet  been  found  between  the  Yukon  and  the  Humboldt,  or 
even  farther  south,  probably  because  the  Eskimo  learned  what 
little  they  knew  about  it  while  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley  or 
the  Atlantic  region."  21 


19  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxii,  pp.  350-363;  Yol.  xxviii,  p.  251. 
20 "  The  North  Americans  of  Yesterday,"  Preface,  p.  xi. 

p.  428. 


134  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Our  author  again  says :  "  How  the  Amerinds  came 
here,  I  explain  by  a  theory  that  there  was  before,  or  perhaps 
during  the  early  part  of,  the  Glacial  period,  a  wider  distribu- 
tion of  land  surfaces  on  latitudinal  lines,  which  invited 
migrations.  These  land  surfaces  may  have  been  no  more 
than  groups  of  larger  or  smaller  islands  which  have  been 
since  wholly  submerged  or  have  left  only  their  highest  parts 
above  the  sea.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  glacial  cold  a 
mild  climate  extended  to  the  North  Pole,  facilitating  migra- 
tions also  in  that  region.  Changes  in  the  ocean's  bottom 
were  probably  greater  in  preglacial  time  than  now,  but  they 
have  not  altogether  ceased.  It  is  little  more  than  fifteen 
years  since  a  new  island  appeared  off  the  Aleutian  chain,  and 
I  think  it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  that  group  existed  above  water 
six  or  eight  hundred  years  ago.  I  am  also  of  the  opinion 
that  no  human  life  was  in  Alaska  or  in  northeast  Siberia 
five  hundred  years  back. 

"  Races  not  being  all  of  an  even  grade  of  culture  before 
the  beginning  of  the  cold  period  any  more  than  now,  the 
tribes  that  found  themselves  isolated  on  this  continent  by 
changes  in  the  land  levels  and  by  the  southward  extension  of 
the  glaciation,  were  unevenly  developed,  some  being  in  ad- 
vance of  others  in  various  ways,  though  none,  of  course,  had 
passed  beyond  the  use  of  stone  tools,  a  condition  in  which 
they  practically  continued  down  to  the  Discovery.  In  this 
respect  the  term  '  Stone  Age,7  as  indicating  a  condition,  is 
applicable,  but  it  would  not  be  possible  to  differentiate  it  into 
e  Paleolithic  '  and  '  Neolithic  ?  periods.  The  cold  pushed 
them  all  southward,  whether  they  came  by  northlands  or  by 
latitudinal  lands,  or  both,  towards  the  narrow,  funnel-like 
part  of  the  continent,  and  also  to  the  lower  levels,  as  there 
was  no  chance  for  latitudinal  expansion  as  in  the  Eastern 
Hemisphere,  the  most  advanced  tribes  being  the  most  south- 
erly, if  not  from  original  position,  because  they  were  able  to 
choose.  Eventually  communication  with  Asia  and  Europe 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      135 

by  the  north  was  by  the  glaciation  severed  completely,  as  it 
had  previously  been  latitudinally  by  the  disappearance  of 
favorable  land  surfaces,  and  communication  by  the  north 
remained  closed  till  within  three  or  four  hundred  years.  The 
most  crowded  tribes  developed  most  rapidly,  because  such 
development  was  imperative  for  self-preservation,  and  their 
culture  filtered  through  in  diminishing  ratio,  according  to 
distance,  to  the  less  crowded  regions — that  is,  to  the  climatic- 
ally less  favorable  regions ;  but  all  who  were  closely  crowded 
in  the  e  funnel '  progressed  along  similar  lines  and  in  much 
the  same  degree,  without  regard  to  relationships,  so  that  we 
find  in  the  narrow  part  of  the  continent,  where  the  largest 
number  found  refuge  from  the  cold,  many  different  stocks  in 
parallel  '  areas  of  characterization/  as  in  the  latitudinally 
broader  lands  of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  though  in  some 
cases  there  were  slight  barriers  tending  to  produce  or  maintain 
slight  variations.  The  long  longitudinal  chain  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  abounding  in  glaciers  to  a  late  date,  and  to  a  less 
extent  that  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  brought  about  a  partial 
isolation  of  the  stocks  in  the  great  north-and-south  migrations, 
maintaining  previous  differences  and  originating  others,  so 
that  we  now  distinguish  differences  between  what  is  called  the 
Pacific  group,  while  they  are  yet  practically  the  same.  The 
tribes  farthest  advanced  at  the  beginning  of  the  isolation  on 
this  continent  would  not  necessarily  continue  at  the  front  of 
progress,  for  a  change  of  conditions  that  might  cripple  such 
tribes  might  at  the  same  time  be  beneficial  to  others  previously 
inferior.  For  instance,  as  the  heat  gradually  returned,  the 
highly  developed  lowland  tribes  began  to  find  themselves  at  a 
disadvantage,  which  grew  with  the  intensity  of  heat,  while 
others,  inured  to  harsher  conditions,  found  warmth  stimulat- 
ing, and  they  began  to  develop  germs  received  from  the 
superior  but  now  declining  stocks.  c  The  American  Indians,' 
says  Brinton,  '  cannot  bear  the  heat  of  the  tropics  even  as 
well  as  the  European.'  The  heat,  which  at  first  seems  to 


136  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

have  been  intense  in  the  daytime,  then  caused  a  decline  of 
the  highest  stocks,  and  a  corresponding  progression  of  lower 
stocks  existing  on,  or  migrating  to,  higher  levels.  The  Yuca- 
tec  tribes  declined,  while  the  IsTahuatls,  at  higher  altitudes, 
began  to  develop.  The  finest  monuments  of  North  American 
antiquity,  for  these  reasons,  are  generally  found  on  com- 
paratively low  levels  and  below  a  certain  latitude,  where 
conditions  during  the  greatest  cold  were  most  favorable; 
conditions  that  may  have  continued  fairly  favorable  down 
to  within,  say,  a  thousand  years. 

"  Long  before  the  dawn  of  the  Columbian  era,  therefore, 
the  Amerind  peoples  had  become,  through  the  influences  indi- 
cated, a  world-race  by  themselves,  existing  in  various  stages 
of  the  same  general  culture,  and  with  a  rising  and  a 
declining  of  tribes  and  stocks  directed  by  environment  and 
circumstances."  22 

Speaking  of  languages  and  dialects  Dellenbaugh  says 
elsewhere :  "  The  widest  differences  were  in  the  Maya  and 
the  Timuquanan.  Each  of  these  differed  greatly  from  the 
bulk  of  the  Amerind  languages  and  from  each  other,  probably 
because  both  stocks  held  more  isolated  positions  than  the 
others  during  the  glacial  period,  and  preserved  more  of  their 
earlier  life,  whatever  it  may  have  been."  23 

It  will  now  be  interesting  to  see  what  this  ethnologist  says 
of  the  effects  of  the  glacial  age  on  the  human  race  as  a  whole. 
Discussing  this  problem,  he  says :  "  The  people  inhabiting 
the  world  before  it  may  have  been  originally  much  alike  in 
kind  and  color,  with  local  variations,  and  the  isolation  pro- 
duced by  glacial  conditions  modified  this  color  and  increased 
the  variations,  those  finally  left  in  hot  lands  becoming  darker, 
medium  temperatures  producing  brown,  still  cooler  the  reds 
and  yellows,  and  the  forests  of  Europe  evolving  a  shade  or 


22  Hid.,  Preface,  pp.  viii-x. 
26  Hid.,  p.    17. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      137 

shadow  people,  shrinking  from  the  strong  sun;  the  so-called 
white  race."  24  The  author  of  this  work  does  not  agree  with 
these  last  conclusions  of  Dellenbaugh.  Briefly  rearranging 
the  order  according  to  his  light,  it  would  seem  that  the  orig- 
inal color  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  before  the  canopies 
fell  was  black ;  as  time  went  on,  and  more  especially  towards 
the  north,  the  browns,  reds,  and  yellows  developed,  and  then 
finally  the  Caucasian  or  Adamite  race  was  evolved.  The 
conditions  arising  from  the  fall  of  the  heat-retaining  canopies 
of  course  were  the  leading  stimuli  which  fostered  these 
changes. 

After  these  long  citations  from  Dellenbaugh,  by  way  of 
contrast  we  will  indulge  in  a  few  shorter  ones,  that  by  the 
mouth  of  several  witnesses  these  things  may  be  established. 
G.  Frederick  Wright  says : 

"  The  evidence  of  man's  existence  in  North  America 
before  the  close  of  the  Glacial  period  would  indicate  that  he 
too  shared  in  the  sharp  struggle  which  ensued  with  the  new 
and  rapidly  changing  conditions  of  that  time.  Did  he  also, 
like  so  many  of  his  companions  among  the  larger  animals, 
share  in  this  extinction  ?  The  sharpness  of  the  transition 
from  paleolithic  to  the  neolithic  implements,  as  we  pass  out 
from  the  Trenton  gravel  into  the  shallow  soil  above  it,  would 
seem  to  indicate  an  absolute  distinction  between  the  two 
succeeding  races.77  25 

"  The  geological  succession  of  events,'7  says  J.  W.  Foster, 
"  as  disclosed  by  the  Danish  discoveries,  would  appear  to  be 
after  the  following  order:  The  Reindeer  Epoch  had  closed, 
and  the  animals  fitted  for  an  Arctic  climate,  which  formerly 
roamed  over  France  and  almost  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, had  retired  to  the  far  north,  before  the  earthen 
tumuli  and  shell-heaps  and  other  relics  of  human  occupancy 


"IUd.,  p.  435. 

25 "The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  568. 


138  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

had  been  erected;  and  were  succeeded  by  a  fauna  now  in- 
digenous to  the  region.  On  the  land,  changes  in  the 
character  of  the  arborescent  vegetation  were  going  on.  The 
pine — associated  with  the  oldest  stone  implements,  and  on 
whose  buds  the  capercailzie  fed — gave  place  to  the  oak— - 
associated  with  bronze  implements — which  in  turn  gave  place 
to  the  beech — associated  with  iron  implements,  the  predomi- 
nant type  of  vegetation  at  this  time.  Thus,  this  succession 
in  climatic  changes  corresponded  very  closely  with  the 
archaeological  changes  of  the  ages  of  Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron, 
bringing  down  the  record  to  the  Historical  Period."  26 

James  Geikie  tells  us  that  "  no  relics  of  Paleolithic  man 
have  been  detected  anywhere  in  Northern  Europe  in  beds 
of  later  date  than  the  accumulations  of  the  third  glacial  epoch. 
Implements,  etc.,  of  Neolithic  age,  on  the  other  hand,  make 
their  first  appearance  on  a  much  higher  horizon.  They  occur 
in  the  older  beds  of  peat,  but  never  in  the  clays  with  arctic 
plants  which  underlie  the  peat-bogs.  It  would  seem,  then, 
that  Neolithic  man  did  not  appear  in  Northern  Europe  until 
the  cold  of  the  fourth  glacial  epoch  was  passing  away."  27 

Since  Paleolithic  relics  have  been  found,  we  have  direct 
proof  that  man  lived  on  the  earth  before  the  last  belts,  which 
caused  the  last  glacial  and  interglacial  periods,  had  dissi- 
pated. "  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  relics  of  Paleolithic 
Man  have  been  found  in  the  same  deposits  with  remains  of 
mammoth,  woolly  rhinoceros,  horse,  wapiti,  etc.,  near  Irkutsk. 
The  relics  consisted  of  rudely  worked  bones,  coarse  objects  of 
burnt  clay,  one  of  which  was  pyramidal  in  form  and  '  holed  ' 
for  the  obvious  purpose  of  being  fixed  to  a  shaft,  while  the 
point  was  worn  and  blunted  as  if  from  use."  2S 


"  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States  of  America,"  6th  ed.,  p.  40. 

""The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  499-500.  G.  Frederick  Wright 
devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  evidence  of  this  kind.  "The  Ice  Age  in 
North  America,"  4th  ed.,  p.  506,  if. 

28  Geikie,  "  The  Great  Ice  Age,"  3d  ed.,  p.  704. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      139 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  same  story  comes  from 
Africa.  There  they  had  a  pluvial  period  almost  within 
Historic  time,  as  the  accompanying  evidence  shows* :  "  The 
exploration  of  the  Sahara  daily  yields  unexpected  discoveries ; 
and  already  fifteen  different  stations  formerly  inhabited  by 
man  have  been  made  out.  In  those  remote  days  a  large  river 
flowed  near  Wargla,  which  was  then  an  important  centre,  and 
a  number  of  tools  picked  up  bear  witness  to  the  former 
presence  of  an  active  and  industrious  population.  At  one 
place  the  flint  implements,  arrow-heads,  knives,  and  scrapers 
are  all  of  a  very  primitive  type,  and  were  found  sorted  into 
piles.  This  was  evidently  a  depot,  probably  forming  the 
reserve  stock  of  the  tribe.  Wargla,  or  perhaps  Golea,  at  one 
time  appears  to  have  been  the  extreme  limit  of  the  Stone  age 
in  Algeria,  but  quite  recently  traces  of  primitive  man  have 
been  discovered  amongst  the  Tuaregs."  29 

The  Egyptologist,  A.  B.  Edwards,  tells  of  a  dry  river 
somewhere  between  Wady  Sabooah  and  Maharrakeh.  Here 
she  found  the  ruins  of  a  comparatively  modern  town,  whose 
location  led  her  into  the  following  speculation.  She  says: 

"  Supposing  yonder  town  to  have  been  founded  in  the 
days  when  the  river  was  a  river,  and  the  plain  fertile  and 
well  watered,  the  mystery  of  its  position  is  explained.  It 
was  protected  in  front  by  the  Nile,  and  in  the  rear  by  the 
ravine  and  the  river.  But  how  long  ago  was  this  ?  Here 
apparently  was  an  independent  stream,  taking  its  rise  among 
the  Libyan  mountains.  It  dated  back,  consequently,  to  a 
time  when  those  barren  hills  collected  and  distributed  water 
— that  is  to  say,  to  a  time  when  it  used  to  rain  in  Nubia. 
And  that  time  must  have  been  before  the  rocky  barrier  broke 
down  at  Silsilis,  in  the  old  days  when  the  land  of  Kush  flowed 
with  milk  and  honey."  30 

29 The   Marquis    de   Nadaillac,    "Manners   and   Monuments    of   Pre- 
historic Peoples,"  trans.  Nancy  Bell    (N.  D'Anvers),  p.  32. 
80 "  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile,"  p.  362. 


140  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  The  hippopotamus  is  found  in  the  Nile,  Niger,  Senegal, 
and  most  of  the  larger  rivers  of  South  Africa,  between  which 
stretch  vast  areas  where  no  individuals  of  the  animal  have 
ever  been  found — regions  untenable  by  reason  of  their  arid- 
ity ;  but  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  chamois,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  a  migration  or  diffusion  did  take  place  at  a  time 
when  the  physical  aspects  of  the  country  were  favorable  for 
such  a  dispersion,  and  were,  consequently,  different  from 
what  they  are  at  present."  31 

Professor  Sayce  says  of  the  period  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  close  of  the  old  Egyptian  empire  with  the  sixth 
dynasty,  and  the  rise  of  the  eleventh:  "Profound  changes 
have  taken,  place  when  the  veil  is  once  more  lifted  from 
Egyptian  history.  We  find  ourselves  in  a  new  Egypt:  the 
seat  of  power  has  been  transferred  to  Thebes,  the  physical 
type  of  the  ruling  caste  is  no  longer  that  of  the  Old  Empire, 
and  a  change  has  passed  over  the  religion  of  the  people;  it 
has  become  gloomy,  introspective,  and  mystical;  the  light- 
hearted  freedom  and  practical  character  that  formerly  dis- 
tinguished it  are  gone.  Art,  too,  has  undergone  modifications 
which  imply  a  long  age  of  development:  it  has  ceased  to  be 
spontaneous  and  realistic,  and  has  become  conventional. 
Even  the  fauna  and  flora  are  different;  and  the  domestic 
cat,  imported  from  Nubia,  for  the  first  time  makes  its  appear- 
ance in  the  threshold  of  history."  No  doubt  the  increased 
cold  resulting  from  the  break-up  of  the  Ice  age  started  the 
Hyksos  invasion.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  effects 
of  the  Ice  age  have  not  yet  entirely  disappeared  from  our 
climate,  and  that  when  the  protecting  belt  which  was  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  great  storms  that  heaped  up  the  snow 
over  North  America  and  Europe  passed  away,  then  these 
storms  descended  into  the  south  country.  Thus  for  a  long 


81  Angelo  Heilprin,  "  The  'Geographical  and  Geological  Distribution 
of  Animals,"  p.  21. 


RECENTNESS  OF  THE  LAST  STAGES  OF  THE  ICE      141 

time  after  the  belt  bad  dissipated,  its  removal  disturbed  the 
genial  climate  of  the  heretofore  favored  middle-lands.  Prob- 
ably most  of  the  barbarian  invasions  resulted  from  this  cause. 
As  a  summary  to  all  that  has  been  said,  two  more  citations 
may  be  pardoned :  "  Prof.  James  Geikie  maintains  that  the 
use  of  paleolithic  implements  had  ceased,  and  that  early  man 
in  Europe  made  neolithic  (polished)  implements,  before  the 
recession  of  the  ice-sheet  from  Scotland,  Denmark,  and  the 
Scandinavian  peninsula;  and  Prestwich  suggests  that  the 
dawn  of  civilization  in  Egypt,  China,  and  India  may  have 
been  coeval  with  the  glaciation  of  northwestern  Europe."  32 
Winchell  says :  "  There  has  been  a  time  in  the  history  of 
the  Aryan  family  of  men  when  they  seem  to  have  suffered 
from  a  sudden  change  of  climate  which  compelled  them  to 
migrate  southward.  When  we  trace  the  movements  of  the 
European  nations  backward,  we  find,  in  the  remote  past,  a 
point  of  divergence  from  the  nations  which  crossed  the 
Hindu-Kush  into  the  peninsula  of  India.  In  Central  Asia 
the  ancestors  of  the  Hindus,  Iranians,  and  Europeans  were 
one  people.  There  arose  the  Brahmanic  and  Zoroastrian 
religions.  But  the  sacred  books  of  the  latter  contain  allusions 
to  a  remoter  time,  when  the  ancestors  of  the  Aryans  dwelt  in 
a  country  blessed  with  seven  months  of  summer.  This  was 
Aryana-Vaejo,  a  land  of  delight,  given  by  Ahura-Mazda,  and 
supposed  to  have  been  located  in  southern  Turkestan,  upon 
the  Plateau  of  Pamir,  or  somewhat  f  artber  east  in  the  beauti- 
ful valley  of  Cash  gar.  But  lest  this  paradise  should  tempt 
all  nations  to  crowd  in  and  overpopulate  it,  the  c  evil  being, 
Angra-Mainyus  (Ahriman),  full  of  death,  created  a  mighty 
serpent,  and  winter,  the  work  of  the  Devas.'  Now  ten 
months  of  frost  prevailed,  succeeded  by  only  two  months  of 
summer.  Of  this  transformed  region  the  Vendidad  says: 


82  G.  Frederick  Wright,  "Greenland  Icefields  and  Life  in  the  Korth 
Atlantic,"  p.  339. 


142  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

'  There  is  the  heart  of  winter ;  there  all  around  falls  deep 
snow;  there  is  the  worst  of  evils.'  So  the  ancestors  of  the 
Zoroastrians  migrated  from  Aryana-Vaejo,  or  Old  Iran, 
southward  into  New  Iran,  within  the  modern  Afghanistan. 
"  Is  there  no  analogy  between  the  Aryana-Yaejo  of  the 
Zend-Avesta  and  the  Eden  of  the  Hebrew  sacred  books  ?  In 
both,  the  primitive  home  of  the  white  race  was  a  country  of 
spontaneous  productiveness  and  a  delightful  climate.  Both 
lands  were  given  by  a  beneficent  Deity  for  human  occupation. 
From  both  lands  our  ancestors  were  driven  through  the 
machinations  of  the  Evil  One.  In  both  narratives  the  power 
of  evil  is  personified  in  a  serpent.  The  consequence  in  both 
narratives  is  the  necessity  of  resort  to  cultivation  of  the  soil 
for  the  production  of  bread.  May  both  narratives  be  pictures 
reproducing  from  national  memory  the  same  encroachment 
of  physical  severities  upon  the  same  land  of  Edenic  de- 
lights ?  "  33  In  the  future  chapters  of  this  work  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  vapor-belt  in  the  sky  was  the  great  serpent. 


Sparks  from  a  Geologist's  Hammer/'  3d  ed.,  pp.  245-246. 


CHAPTER  XII 

FOSSIL  THOUGHT 

WITH  apologies  for  taking  such  liberty  with  Shakespeare 
the  following  question  is  asked: 

Doubt  thou  the  stars  are  fire; 

Doubt  that  the  sun  doth  move; 
Doubt;  but  at  least  inquire 

What  theory  fits  the  groove. 

Serpent  worship  was  once  a  world-wide  cult,  and  in  Egypt 
this  serpent  was  linked  with  Canopus  (the  canopy),  who 
conquered  the  fire  in  the  sky-ring  (the  sun)  by  his  water- jar. 
Canopus  was  the  Egyptian  god  of  water,  and  was  represented 
by  the  hieroglyphic  of  a  water- jar,  though  sometimes  a  ser- 
pent was  used  in  its  stead.  As  the  vapor-belt  formed  a 
secondary  arc  under  the  canopy,  it  was  natural  to  associate 
it  with  water;  hence  the  water- jar.  It  can  readily  be  seen 
how  our  word  "  canopy "  is  derived  from  this  serpent-net 
or  covering.  It  comes  to  us  through  the  Greek. 

Leaving  the  thought  of  the  serpent  for  the  present,  we 
find  many  references  to  the  canopy ;  thus  one  of  the  maxims 
from  Theognis  the  Megarean,  translated  by  the  Rev.  J.  Blank, 
M.A.,  reads  as  follows: 

"  Then  may  the  broad  brazen  vault-of-heaven  fall  on  me 
from  above,  that  terror  of  men  of  the  olden-time,  if  I  shall 
not  help  them  indeed  who  love  me :  but  be  to  my  foes  a  vexa- 
tion and  great  source-of-loss." 

The  same  translated  by  J.  H.  Frere  runs  thus : 

"Then  let  the  brazen  fiery  vault  of  heaven 
Crush  me  with  instant  ruin,  rent  and  riven, 
(The  fear  and  horror  of  a  former  age,) 
If   from  the   friends   and   comrades   that  engage 
In  common  enterprise  I  shrink,  or  spare 
Myself  or  any  soul!     If  I  forbear 
Full  vengeance  and  requital  on  my  foes! 
All  our  antagonists!  all  that  oppose!  " 

143 


144  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

This  brazen  fiery  vault  was  the  sun,  or  "  shiner,"  of  the 
ancients ;  the  true  sun  imparted  its  light  to  the  fire  belt,  but 
was  itself  unseen.  Herodotus  tells  of  the  account  he  heard 
from  the  Egyptians,  how  that  for  a  period  of  ten  thousand 
years  none  of  the  sky  gods  assumed  the  form  of  man.  Speak- 
ing of  the  shiner,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  the  sun,  he  says :  "  Dur- 
ing this  time,  they  related  that  the  sun  had  four  times  risen 
out  of  his  usual  quarter,  and  that  he  had  twice  risen  where 
he  now  sets,  and  twice  set  where  he  now  rises;  yet  that  no 
change  in  the  things  in  Egypt  was  occasioned  by  this,  either 
with  regard  to  the  productions  of  the  earth  or  the  river,  or 
with  regard  to  diseases,  or  with  respect  to  deaths."  1 

The  early  Aryans  called  "  the  vault  "  Varuna.  Beneath 
it  the  region  of  clouds  was  enthroned.  The  light  of  luminous 
air  they  called  Dyaus.  The  Greeks  conceived  the  same  idea 
of  a  hollow  or  concave  vault,  KoUo$.  Among  the  Latins  the 
name  ccelum  has  the  same  signification.  Thus  we  see  how 
tenaciously  the  record  of  the  facts  survived  the  rise  and  fall 
of  empires,  even  after  their  meaning  had  been  forgotten. 

Should  we  go  back  to  the  earliest  days  of  the  first  Baby- 
lonian Empire,  we  would  find  that  these  matters  which  we 
are  depicting  were  even  then  in  a  great  measure  only  echo. 
On  investigation,  however,  we  would  find  the  sound  was  very 
close,  the  echo  was  very  loud  and  clear.  We  often  tell  chil- 
dren to  count  the  seconds  intervening  between  the  flash  of  the 
lightning  and  the  growl  of  the  thunder,  in  order  to  estimate 
the  distance.  Applying  this  rule,  we  find  in  this  instance  a 
very  short  interval. 

Rassam  found  in  the  ruins  of  Abu  Habba  a  marble  tablet, 
eleven  inches  and  a  half  long  by  seven  inches  wide,  covered 
with  writing  and  adorned  with  a  beautiful  bas-relief  on  the 
top  of  the  obverse.  The  subject  represents  Sippara,  the  god  of 
the  shiner,  seated  in  his  shrine,  under  the  canopy.  The 


1  Henry  Gary's  trans.,  B.  2,  <|f  142,  p.  152. 


FOSSIL  THOUGHT  145 

significance  of  the  fact  is  that  the  inscription  gives  instruc- 
tions how  the  symbols  are  to  be  engraved,  how  they  "  are  to 
be  placed  on  a  new  image  that  may  be  made,"  "  opposite  the 
ocean,  between  the  snake."  The  sun,  Shamash,  is  outside 
the  snake,  but  is  pulled  up  over  it  by  cords.2 

At  the  time  when  this  conception  was  born  the  true  sun 
must  have  been  seen  dimly  riding  up  above  the  body  of  the 
snake.  The  Egyptians  beheld  the  same  scene,  and,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  age,  it  became  a  part  of  their  religion. 
They  called  the  arc  of  the  sky  Nu  or  Nu-t  and  represented  it 
by  a  female  figure  bending  over  Seb,  the  earth,  who  lay  in  a 
recumbent  position.  N~u~t's  body  was  elongated  in  a  very 
peculiar  manner,  her  feet  resting  on  one  horizon  and  her 
finger-tips  on  the  other.  Over  her  arched  back  the  sun-god 
traversed  the  sky  daily  from  east  to  west  in  his  boat.  The 
vapor  arc  or  halo  which  surrounded  the  dimly  seen  sun 
accounts  for  this  myth.  Sometimes  K~u-t  is  represented  as 
double.  The  upper  bending  figure  being  covered  with  stars 
clearly  portrays  her  nature.  She  must  have  been  nearly 
transparent.  The  lower  Nu-t  is  evidently  a  band  of  water, 
which  suggests  the  Hebrew  idea  of  the  firmament.  The 
proximate  cause  of  the  formation  of  this  vapor  belt,  we  have 
seen,  was  the  upper  canopy.  Seb,  the  earth,  is  represented 
covered  with  leaves. 

When  the  canopy  first  began  to  split  at  the  equator,  divid- 
ing into  the  northern  and  southern  halves,  the  Egyptians  saw 
the  two  belts  descending  on  the  one  horizon  as  the  arms  of 
Nu-t  and  on  the  other  as  the  legs.  Job  speaks  of  these  two 
divisions  as  "  the  pillars  of  heaven."  He  says :  "  They 
tremble  and  are  astonished  at  His  reproof.  He  divideth  the 
sea  with  His  power."  *  *  *  "  He  bindeth  up  the  waters  in 
His  thick  clouds;  and  the  cloud  is  not  rent  under  them." 


2 Herman  V.  Hilprecht,  "Explorations  in  Bible  Lands  During  the 
Nineteenth  Century,"  pp.  269-271. 
10 


146  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

*  *  *  "  By  His  Spirit  He  hath  garnished  the  heavens ;  His 
hand  hath  formed  the  crooked  serpent."  3 

The  Hindus  called  these  two  belts  the  Acvins.  At  night 
they  were  seen  as  two  pillars  of  light  receiving  the  sun  rays 
from  the  under-world.  These  were  also  the  original  Pillars 
of  Hercules.  As  the  vapors  thinned  out  over  the  tropical 
region,  the  sun  rose  between  the  great  pillars  or  divisions  of 
Nu-t,  and  set  between  them  again  on  the  other  side.  And 
this  sun  was  a  blazing,  flaming  creature,  a  god,  traveling  in 
his  halo  boat. 

When  the  fact  is  recalled  that  the  sun  was  said  by  the 
ancients  to  set  between  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  it  will  be 
granted  that  it  was  natural  that  when  the  sky  scenes  passed 
away,  the  twin  rocks  at  the  entrance  of  the  Mediterranean 
came  to  inherit  the  name.  Some  may  even  have  considered 
them  the  stumps  out  of  which  the  sky-pillars  grew.  They 
were  at  the  "  world's  end  "  to  the  Greeks,  nothing  but  the  all- 
encircling  ocean-river  lying  beyond. 

As  we  have  seen,  in  Job  "  the  pillars  of  heaven  "  are 
associated  with  the  "  crooked  serpent."  Hercules  (the  sun), 
when  he  took  the  place  of  the  giant  Atlas,  supporting  the 
heavens  on  his  shoulders  while  the  latter  obtained  the  golden 
apples  (stars)  from  the  garden  of  Hesperides,  is  another 
account  by  a  different  people  of  the  same  thing.  We  can 
readily  see  the  "  Pillars  "  (Atlas)  arising  from  the  horizon 
and  apparently  supporting  the  heavens ;  the  stars  are  discov- 
ered in  its  open  rifts  guarded  by  the  dragon  or  serpent. 
Another  name  of  the  "  Pillars  "  is  the  "  World-Tree." 

Serpent  worship  was  universal.  Frequently  the  myths 
tell  of  two  serpents.  These  undoubtedly  represent  the  two 
halves  of  the  canopy,  and  the  people  who  left  the  record  lived 
on  or  near  the  equator,  where  both  belts  could  be  seen.  When 
only  one  serpent  is  mentioned  the  people  leaving  the  record 


•Job   xxvi:    11,    12,   8,    13. 


FOSSIL  THOUGHT  147 

usually  lived  in  the  middle  regions  under  the  canopy  or 
nearer  the  poles. 

The  infant  Hercules  (the  new-born  sun,  just  bursting 
through  the  canopy)  is  said  to  have  strangled  two  serpents 
with  his  own  hands  before  he  was  out  of  his  cradle  (the  vapor 
arc  boat). 

"  First  two  dread  Snakes  at  Juno's  vengeful  nod 
Climb'd  round  the  cradle  of  the  sleeping  god; 
Waked  by  the  thrilling  hiss  and  rustling  sound, 
And  shrieks  of  fair  attendants  trembling  round, 
Their  gasping  throats  with  clenching  hands  he  holds, 
And  Death  untwists  their  convoluted  folds." 4 

It  is  said  of  the  ancient  Hindus  that  they  must  have 
known  of  yore  that  Saturn  was  encircled  by  rings.5  This 
assumption  is  made  on  the  ground  that  an  image  in  one  of 
their  temples  represents  the  god  Sani,  or  Saturn,  intwined 
by  two  wreathing  serpents.  It  seems  more  likely  that  this 
image  originally  represented  our  own  system,  as  the  two 
snakes  are  certainly  very  suggestive  of  the  two  halves  of  the 
divided  canopy. 

The  Persian  legends  tell  us  of  a  serpent-king  called  Zohak. 
He  was  a  power  for  good  until  the  demon  Iblis  kissed  him 
on  the  shoulder.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  place  from 
whence  the  good  emanated.  On  his  shoulder,  like  in  the 
story  of  Atlas,  the  world-roof  rested.  Thus  when  he  was 
kissed  in  this  spot  there  issued  two  dreadful  serpents,  and  the 
golden  age,  with  its  Eden-like  conditions  under  the  canopy, 
came  to  an  end.  We  will  find  a  great  many  myths  of  this 
character  as  we  go  on  with  the  study.  The  parting  of  the 
canopy  brought  with  it  death  and  destruction.  In  this  par- 
ticular instance  Iblis  told  Zohak  that  the  two  dreadful 
serpents  must  be  fed  every  day  with  the  brains  of  two  chil- 
dren. So  the  country  gradually  became  depopulated.  The 
end  was  to  destroy  the  human  race.6 

4 Darwin.       'Maurice,  "Indian  Antiquities." 
"Poor,  "Sanskrit  Literature,"  p.  158. 


148  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

At  Circleville,  Ohio,  some  time  ago,  a  very  curious  cir- 
cular disc  of  stone,  about  a  foot  in  diameter,  was  found. 
Around  it  was  carved  the  figures  of  two  intwined  serpents. 

Bernal  Diaz,  who  accompanied  Cortez,  stated  that  in  one 
town  whose  buildings  were  of  lime  and  stone  they  found 
"  figures  of  serpents  and  idols  painted  upon  the  walls."  The 
arms  of  the  Peruvians  were  two  serpents  with  their  tails 
interlaced.  At  San  Juan  de  Maguana,  in  the  Island  of 
Haiti,  "  curious  relics  of  the  aboriginal  cult,"  says  A.  K. 
Fiske,  "  have  been  found,  including  a  circle  of  stones  roughly 
representing  the  emblem  of  eternity,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent 
with  its  tail  in  its  mouth."  7  Many  such  relics  have  been 
found  elsewheres. 

The  usual  form  of  the  serpent  myth,  however,  represents 
only  one  belt  at  a  time.  The  Midgard  Serpent  occupied  the 
local  heaven,  or  middle  world  (middle  heaven),  of  the  Norse- 
man. In  Egypt,  Apophis,  the  lofty  serpent,  reigned  over 
the  mighty  water. 

Archaeological  remains  show  the  same  veneration  for  this 
ubiquitous  sky-serpent.  Some  of  the  new-world  "  finds  " 
have  already  been  referred  to.  "  Some  additional  light  ap- 
pears to  have  been  thrown  upon  ancient  serpent  worship  in 
the  West  by  the  recent  archaeological  explorations  of  Mr. 
John  S.  Phene,  F.G.S.,  F.E.G.S.,  in  Scotland.  Mr.  Phene 
has  just  investigated  a  curious  earthen  mound  in  Glen 
Feechan,  Argyllshire,  referred  to  by  him,  at  the  late  meeting 
of  the  British  Association  in  Edinburgh,  as  being  in  the 
form  of  a  serpent  or  saurian.  ( The  mound/  says  the 
Scotsman, '  is  a  perfect  one.'  The  head  is  a  large  cairn,  and 
the  body  of  the  earthen  reptile  300  feet  long;  and  in  the 
centre  of  the  head  there  were  evidences,  when  Mr.  Phene 
first  visited  it,  of  an  altar  having  been  placed  there."  8 


T"The  West  Indies,"  p.  252. 

8  Ignatius  Donnelly,  "  Atlantis,"  21st  ed.,  pp.  204-205. 


FOSSIL  THOUGHT  149 

In  America  the  Mound  Builders  are  comparatively  a 
recent  people.  Their  works  overlie  the  formations  of  the 
Glacial  age,  but  the  existence  of  serpent  worship  amongst 
them  indicates  that  there  were  still  remnants  of  the  old 
belted  vapor  system  left  in  the  sky  when  they  inhabited  the 
land.  Probably  the  most  famous  monument  left  by  them  is 
that  of  the  great  serpent  mound  of  Adams  County,  Ohio. 
This  serpent  has  an  egg  in  its  mouth,  which  undoubtedly 
represents  the  sun  in  his  vapor-arc,  the  boat  of  the  Egyptians. 
Other  groups  of  mounds  also  include  the  egg. 

In  the  south  the  canopy  divided,  and  the  sun,  appearing 
in  the  rift,  seemed  to  conquer,  but  in  the  higher  latitudes,  in 
the  middle  regions,  as  it  were,  the  belts  slowly  descending 
polewards  seemed  to  swallow  the  orb  of  day  as  depicted  by 
the  serpent  mounds.  The  Iroquois  say  that  the  White  one, 
meaning  the  sun,  was  overcome  by  the  frog  monster,  who 
swallowed  him  up.  This  tale  is  found  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic. 

At  Waukesha,  Wisconsin,  is  a  relic  similar  to  the  serpent 
mound  of  Adams  County,  Ohio.  It  is  called  by  Lapham  a 
"  Turtle  mound."  Body,  56  feet,  engulfing  an  egg;  tail  250 
feet ;  height  6  feet.  The  so-called  "  Lizard  mounds  "  also 
occur  here.  They  have  remarkable  curved  tails.  These 
long  tails  portray  what  their  builders  actually  saw  in  the 
sky.  And  no  doubt  we  here  have  the  origin  of  that  primeval 
serpent-worship  found  all  over  the  world.  First  he  was  the 
good  serpent,  the  protector,  but  as  his  aspect  became  menac- 
ing, with  the  passing  of  time,  he  became  associated  with  the 
evil  one.  "  In  itself  the  serpent  should  no  more  represent 
moral  wrong,"  says  Donnelly,  "  than  the  lizard,  the  crocodile, 
or  the  frog;  but  the  hereditary  abhorrence  with  which  he  is 
regarded  by  mankind  extends  to  no  other  created  thing.  He 
is  the  image  of  the  great  destroyer,  the  wronger,  the  enemy."  9 


"Ragnarok,"  p.  175. 


150  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

A  peculiarity  about  serpent  worship  was  that  it  was 
quickly  forgotten,  being  superseded  by  its  successor  in  a  few 
turns  of  the  hour-glass ;  but  this  is  as  the  present  hypothesis 
requires,  for  when  the  hidden  sun  came  into  view  he  came  as 
a  conqueror  and  claimed  all  that  adoration  which  ones  be- 
longed to  the  snake.  The  slimy  reptile  which  we  all  abhor 
to-day  never  could  have  commanded  the  veneration  which 
we  find  was  accorded  it  in  the  prehistoric  age.  The 
conclusion  is  obvious — 

The  snakes  of  old,  that  by  all  men  were  praised 
Must  have  been  grand  as  in  the  sky  they  blazed — 
The  people  called  them  gods  and  stood  amazed. 

In  India,  Amanta,  the  good,  who  was  the  serpent  of 
celestial  waters,  and  who  dwelt  in  the  lower  sky,  was  con- 
quered by  a  supreme  god,  who  lived  above,  on  high.  The 
Toltecs  called  their  sky-god,  Quetzalcoatl.  "  The  Popol  Vuh, 
the  great  collection  of  Quiche  myths,  presents  Gukumatz  as 
one  of  the  four  principal  gods  who  created  the  world. 
Gukumatz  means  shining  or  brilliant  snake,  and  hence  seems 
to  be  the  same  character  as  that  known  to  the  Nahuatls,  or 
Aztecs,  as  Quetzalcoatl,  whose  name  means  the  bright  or 
shining  snake."  10 

Quetzalcoatl  was  reputed  to  be  a  very  good  vapor 
spirit,  a  kind  of  coverer.  He  was  the  son  of  Camaxtli,  the 
shiner  of  yesterday ;  that  is,  of  a  shining  canopy  or  sun  that 
had  passed  away.  "  He  fought  the  enemies  that  had  risen 
against  his  father,  and  attacked  the  temple  of  the  Cloud- 
Snakes'  mountain."  *  *  *  "  He  was  tall,  of  white  com- 
plexion." His  reign  was  the  Golden  Age  of  the  Toltecs.  He 
was  pursued  by  enemies  and  obliged  to  fly.  One  of  these 
was  a  near  kinsman,  a  splendid  youth,  named  Tezcatlipoca, 
the  smoking  mirror,  whom  we  recognize  as  a  canopy.  This 


10  F.  S.  Dellenbaugh,  "  The  North  Americans  of  Yesterday,"  p.  397. 


FOSSIL  THOUGHT  151 

kinsman  was  his  bitter  enemy.  "  Quetzalcoatl  was  pressed 
from  land  to  land.  By  some  accounts  he  disappeared  in  a 
boat  on  the  sea;  by  others  he  perished  on  the  snow-covered 
peak  of  Orizaba  (the  Olympian  cloud-mountain  of  the 
Aztecs),  mounting  to  heaven  on  the  smoke  of  the  funeral 
pile.  When  he  vanished  the  sun  withdrew  his  shining."  11 

In  the  museum  down  at  Mexico  an  image  of  Quetzalco- 
atl is  on  exhibition  which  is  girt  about  with  snakes  of  very 
savage  mien.  Their  peculiarity  is  that  they  are  both  bird 
and  reptile,  a  kind  of  feathered  flying  serpent,  indicating 
rapid  flight.  This  idea  of  rapid  flight  is  frequently  associ- 
ated with  the  White  one,  the  illuminated  and  fleeting  canopy, 
or  perhaps  rather  with  the  true  sun  seen  in  his  vapor-arc  or 
boat  passing  rapidly  over  the  canopy-sea. 

Turning  to  the  Arabian  tales,  the  identity  of  thought  with 
all  that  we  have  already  set  forth  bespeaks  a  common  origin 
of  this  class  of  nature  myth.  Thus,  "  Abou  Mohammed  the 
Lazy,  who  is  a  very  great  magician,  with  power  over  the 
forces  of  the  air  and  the  Af rites,  beholds  a  battle  between  two 
great  snakes,  one  tawny-colored,  the  other  white.  The  tawny 
serpent  is  overcoming  the  white  one;  but  Abou  Mohammed 
kills  it  with  a  rock.  The  white  serpent  (the  sun)  departed, 
and  was  absent  for  a  while,  but  returned;  and  the  tawny 
serpent  was  torn  to  pieces  and  scattered  over  the  land,  and 
nothing  remained  of  her  but  her  head."  12 

The  white  one,  or  the  egg  in  some  of  the  myths,  which 
was  seen  through  the  canopy  was  the  sun.  His  foe  was  the 
glittering  prince  of  serpents,  the  feathered  serpent,  etc.  In 
the  Bible  there  is  the  flying  serpent:  Isa.  xiv:  29 ;  Job  xxvi : 
13 ;  Isa.  xxvii :  1.  The  Aztecs  represented  their  god, 
Tezcatlipoca,  as  a  flying  or  winged  serpent.  Other  myths 
represent  the  canopy  as  a  dragon,  while  still  others  picture  it 


11  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  44,  45. 
"Ignatius  Donnelly,  "  Ragnarok,"  p.  268. 


152  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

as  a  giant  bird,  a  frog,  a  wolf,  a  dog,  a  boar,  or  as  some  other 
creature.  The  Hindu  legends  often  represent  it  as  a  cow, 
and  amongst  all  primitive  people  the  deer  and  the  hare  are 
common.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  belts  in  falling 
advanced  through  several  different  stages,  forming  many 
different  sky-forms,  which  were  seen  from  a  great  many 
different  angles,  and  by  a  great  many  different  people.  Speed 
seems  to  have  impressed  them  all,  hence  the  comparison  with 
flying  animals. 

The  belts  as  they  drifted  northward  or  southward  broke 
into  separate  divisions.  These  were  the  immediate  cause  of 
the  various  stages  of  ice  recession.  Mythology  is  full  of  these 
broken  and  wicked  forms — wicked  because  of  the  evil  that 
they  introduced  on  the  earth ;  and  sometimes  these  forms  are 
called  serpents.  They  were  the  hundred-armed  giants, 
known  as  Typhon,  Briareus,  and  Enceladus.  Again,  they 
were  the  three  huge  monsters,  the  terrible  speckled  serpent, 
Typhon,  and  Chimaera,  the  fire  ring,  a  lion  in  front,  a  goat 
in  the  middle,  and  a  serpent  behind.  Chimsera  breathed 
resistless  fire,  and,  like  the  speckled  serpent,  was  huge,  swift, 
and  fierce.  Typhon,  associated  with  both  of  these,  seems  to 
have  been  the  most  terrible  of  all.  This  dreadful  monster, 
born  of  Hell,  was  also  a  serpent  or  fierce  dragon.  He  was 
many-headed,  dusky  tongues  of  fire  gleamed  throughout  his 
body,  and  it  was  said  that  he  emitted  appalling  noises  and 
caused  earthquakes. 

The  story  told  in  the  Typhon  legend  is  found  in  the 
mythology  of  many  peoples.  In  the  Norse  account  we  see 
the  same  threefold  aspect,  to  wit,  the  three  monsters  called 
"  the  Midgard  serpent,"  "  the  Fenris  wolf,"  and  lastly  "  the 
dog  Gram."  In  the  book  of  Job  again  we  have  the  three 
divisions :  first,  the  "  winding  "  or  "  twisting  "  serpent,  with 
which  God  "  adorned  the  heavens  " ;  then  "  Behemoth,"  the 
monster  who  drank  up  rivers;  and  finally  the  terrible 
"  Leviathan,"  whose  name  means  "  the  twisting  animal  gath- 


FOSSIL  THOUGHT  153 

ering  itself  into  folds."  The  Saxon  legend  tells  us  how 
Beowulf  killed  savage  monsters — Grendel,  the  devil's  dam, 
and  thirdly  a  dragon.  Association  of  ideas  recalls  to  our 
minds  the  three  roots  of  the  tree  Ygdrasil,  the  three-pronged 
trident  of  Poseidon,  etc.,  etc. 

Says  the  Russian  fairy-tale :  "  Once  there  was  an  old 
couple  who  had  three  sons.  Two  of  them  had  their  wits  about 
them,  but  the  third,  Ivan,  was  a  simpleton.  Now,  in  the  land 
in  which  Ivan  lived  there  was  never  any  day,  but  always 
night.  This  was  a  snake's  doing.  Well,  Ivan  undertook  to 
kill  that  snake.  Then  came  a  third  snake,  with  twelve 
heads.  Ivan  killed  it,  and  destroyed  the  heads ;  and  immedi- 
ately there  was  bright  light  throughout  the  whole  land.  The 
myth  is  pushed  on,  and  there  is  also  the  monster  who  devours 
maidens,  called  a  i  Norka ' ;  and  Perun  takes  the  work  of 
Indra  and  Saint  George,  enters  the  castle  (dark  clouds),  and 
rescues  her.  But  the  dark  power  takes  a  distinctive  Russian 
appearance  in  the  awful  figure  of  Koshchei  the  deathless."  13 

This  victory  of  the  sun  over  the  serpent  is  told  by  all 
primitive  peoples.  It  is  the  victory  of  Adonis  over  Typhon, 
of  Indra  over  Yritra,  of  Dimiriat  over  Dahish,  of  Timadonar 
over  Ariconte,  of  Hercules  over  the  two  serpents  strangled 
while  he  was  still  an  infant;  of  Osiris  over  Seb,  etc.,  etc. 

"  Pleasing  was  his  shape, 
And  lovely;  never  since  of  serpent  kind, 
Lovelier;    not  those   that   in   Illyria  changed 
Hermione  and  Cadmus,  or  the  god 
In  Epidaurus,  nor  to  which  transformed 
Ammonian  Jove,  or  Capitoline,  was  seen."14 

The  serpent,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  not  always 
lovely.  In  the  early  stages  of  canopy  decline  he  was  the 
dark  and  threatening  one.  The  Peruvians  tell  of  a  certain 
hero  named  Guamansuri,  who  descended  to  the  earth  and 


13  L.  E.  Poor,  "  Sanskrit  and  its  Kindred  Literatures,"  p.  390. 

14  Milton. 


154  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

seduced  the  sister  of  Guachemines,  who  was  the  rayless  one, 
or  the  Darkling;  that  is  to  say,  she  was  the  Power  of  Dark- 
ness. The  sister  proved  pregnant,  and  died  in  her  labor, 
giving  birth  to  two  eggs,  the  sun  and  moon. 

Again  the  Miztecs,  who  dwelt  on  the  outskirts  of  Mexico, 
said :  "  In  the  year  and  in  the  day  of  obscurity  and  dark- 
ness, yea,  even  before  the  days  or  the  year  were  (before  the 
visible  revolution  of  the  sun  marked  the  days,  and  the 
universal  canopy  prevented  the  distinguishing  of  the  sea- 
sons) ,  when  the  world  was  in  great  darkness  and  chaos,  when 
the  earth  was  covered  with  water,  and  there  was  nothing  but 
mud  and  slime  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth — behold  a  god 
became  visible,  and  his  name  was  the  Deer,  and  his  surname 
was  the  Lion-snake.  There  appeared  also  a  very  beautiful 
goddess  called  the  Deer,  and  surnamed  the  Tiger-snake. 
These  two  gods  were  the  origin  and  beginning  of  all  the 
gods."  15 


™0rigen  de  los  Ind.,  pp.  327-329. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

GENESIS 

IN  the  development  of  Christianity  on  its  intellectual 
side,  what  is  needed  to-day  is  more  synthetical  work;  it  is 
often  forgotten  that  parts  only  go  to  make  up  a  whole.  Sepa- 
rate truths  go  to  make  up  one  testimony,  and  that  testimony 
is  of  the  unity  of  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth ;  it  is  the 
revelation  of  God  in  all  and  through  all  and  above  all,  and 
all  truth  has  its  place  somewhere  in  the  scheme  of  this  tes- 
timony. Truth  cannot  annihilate  truth,  hence  we  say,  what 
is  needed  to-day  is  more  synthetical  work.  Frederick  Har- 
rison has  well  said :  "  There  never  was  an  age  so  deeply 
intoxicated  with  specialism  in  all  its  forms  as  our  own,  so 
loftily  abhorrent  of  anything  systematic,  so  alien  to  synthesis, 
that  is,  organic  coordination  of  related  factors.  Everything 
nowadays  is  treated  in  infinitesimal  subdivisions.  Each 
biologist  sticks  to  his  own  microbe ;  each  historian  to  his  own 
'  period  ' ;  the  practical  man  leaves  '  ideas  '  to  the  doctrinaire, 
and  the  divine  leaves  it  to  the  dead  worldling  to  bury  his 
dead  in  his  own  fashion.  Specialism  is  erected  into  a  philos- 
ophy, a  creed,  a  moral  duty,  an  intellectual  antiseptic."  1 

Now,  as  the  various  parts  are  brought  together,  we  see 
that  science  and  comparative  theology,  as  recorded  in  the 
fossil  rock  and  fossil  thought  handed  down  to  us,  unite  har- 
moniously in  the  present  cosmological  hypothesis.  Each 
shoemaker  has  been  sticking  to  his  own  last,  but  it  is  now 
time  to  do  the  fitting,  and  the  foot-gear  should  be  in  keeping 
with  the  whole  dress  of  the  man.  The  historian,  the  archae- 
ologist, the  paleontologist,  the  anthropologist,  the  ethnologist, 


"  Great  Keligions  of  the  World,"  art.  on  "  Positivism,"  p.  170. 

155 


156  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  philologist,  the  mythographer,  and  the  theologian,  all 
need  to  get  together. 

The  present  hypothesis  brings  them  together,  and,  further- 
more, it  sets  its  seal  on  God's  revelation.  God's  created  record 
and  God's  written  record,  Nature  and  the  Bible,  testify  with 
one  voice.  And  the  written  word  is  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Proof  that  the  Bible  is  inspired  is  set  forth  in  the  fact 
that  its  various  parts  were  written  in  an  unscientific  age  and 
yet  they  are  scientific.  For  this  reason  theology,  when  it 
properly  interprets  the  evidence,  may  be  set  down  as  an  exact 
science.  In  an  unscientific  age  a  correct  account  of  creation 
was  written.  Since  the  unknown  has  been  revealed,  why 
should  not  the  unknowable  of  this  age  also  be  opened  to  the 
eyes  of  a  future  generation  ?  Cicero  says :  "  When  you  look 
upon  a  large  and  beautiful  house,  though  you  should  not  see 
the  master  and  find  it  quite  empty,  no  one  can  persuade  you 
that  it  was  built  for  the  mice  and  weasels  that  abound  in  it," 
The  plan  of  the  universe  is  far  too  grand  to  suppose  that  it 
is  "  accident,"  therefore  we  are  glad  to  say  with  the  patriarch, 
"  In  the  beginning  God." 

Let  us  look  into  this  creation  record.  In  Genesis  i :  1 , 
there  is  a  heaven  mentioned  which  seems  to  be  the  same  as  the 
firmament  heaven  of  verse  8.  This  is  not  to  be  understood 
to  be  the  expanse  above  and  around  us,  studded  with  innu- 
merable stars,  which  is  really  infinite  space,  but  a  heaven 
that  was  according  to  the  divine  account  "  created."  It  was 
associated  with  the  earth.  God  made  heaven  (Heb. 
shamayim,  heaved  up  things)  and  earth.  Jer.  xxxii :  17 ; 
Ps.  xxxiii :  6-9.  This  fact  is  forgotten  to-day.  II  Pet.  iii : 
3-6;  Isa.  xl:21-22.  The  necessity  of  some  such  interpre- 
tation as  this  was  apparent  to  the  early  Church  Fathers. 
St.  Basil,  St.  Csesarius,  and  Origen  argued  that  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  existed  from  the  beginning,  but  that  they 
did  not  appear  until  the  fourth  day. 


GENESIS  157 

This  heaven,  or  heavens,  had  an  expansion  or  division 
in  it  (Gen.  i :  6).  The  vapor  helt  was  suspended,  as  we  have 
seen  in  our  scientific  chapters,  in  the  atmosphere  under  the 
canopy,  and  the  Scriptures  call  them  the  waters  which  were 
under  and  which  were  above  the  expanse.  Unless  this  account 
be  based  on  fact,  who  would  have  ever  risked  his  reputation 
to  be  sponsor  for  such  a  statement?  Does  the  heaven  look 
to  us  as  though  the  blue  arch  were  a  few  hundred  feet  high, 
and  that  on  top  of  it  are  the  clouds  ?  Job  says :  "  Dost 
thou  know  the  balancings  of  the  clouds,  the  wondrous  works 
of  Him  which  is  perfect  in  knowledge?  *  *  *  Hast 
thou  with  Him  spread  out  the  sky,  which  is  strong,  and  as  a 
molten  looking-glass  ?  "  2 

It  has  been  demonstrated  in  our  scientific  chapters  that 
the  geological  age-changes  were  brought  about  by  the  disrup- 
tion of  these  vapor  belts,  or  heavens.  These  broke  the 
sequence  in  the  chain  of  life.  The  great  mutations  occurred 
almost  instantaneously,  becoming  established  in  a  generation 
or  so.  Verily  they  were  new  "  creations,"  and  they  occurred 
in  a  day. 

The  etymology  of  this  word  day  "  gives  it  the  sense," 
says  J.  W.  Dawson,  "  of  the  time  of  glowing  or  warmth,  and 
in  accordance  with  this  the  divine  authority  here  limits  its 
meaning  to  the  daylight."  3  This  is  very  puzzling  to  the 
Biblical  student,  for  the  nature  of  the  context  clearly  shows 
that  the  natural  day  from  sunrise  to  sunset  is  expressly 
excluded.  ISTow,  the  period  of  duration  for  a  canopy  was  a 
time  of  glowing  and  of  warmth ;  it  is  therefore  quite  evident 
that  the  seven  days  of  creation  were  seven  ages  of  canopy 
light. 

The  diurnal  period  was  divided  into  a  time  of  light  and 
of  shade.  The  light  of  the  sun  shining  through,  and  on, 
the  overhanging  canopy  of  water-vapors  produced  the  greater 


3  Job  xxxvii:    16,  18.       *"The  Origin  of  the  World,"  p.  126. 


158  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

light  to  rule  the  day  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night. 
"  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul.  O  Lord  my  God,  Thou  art 
very  great ;  Thou  art  clothed  with  honour  and  majesty.  Who 
coverest  Thyself  with  light  as  with  a  garment :  Who  stretchest 
out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain :  Who  layeth  the  beams  of  his 
chambers  in  the  waters :  Who  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariot : 
Who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind:  Who  maketh  his 
angels  spirits;  his  ministers  a  flaming  fire:  Who  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth,  that  it  should  not  be  removed  for 
ever.  Thou  coveredst  it  with  the  deep  as  with  a  garment: 
the  waters  stood  above  the  mountains."  4 

During  the  period  of  shade  the  light  from  below  illu- 
minated the  vapor  arc  or  crescent  (moon  of  the  ancients) 
with  a  pale  refulgence,  weird,  cold,  and  uncanny.  The 
witness  of  the  shadow  of  the  earth  on  the  canopy  is  the 
Pyramid  of  Cheops  (Isa.  xix:  19-20;  Jer.  xxxii:  17-20). 
The  time  of  shade  or  shadow,  associated  with  death  by  the 
Egyptians,  was  the  night-time.  A  shadow-cone,  or  pyramid, 
was  projected  into  the  canopy  from  the  sunlight  shining  up 
from  the  under-world. 

A  sparkling  canopy  diffused  its  light  on  an  awakening 
earth.  After  man  was  created  (evolved),  this  was  to  him 
the  "  shiner,"  or  his  sun.  In  Joshua's  day  this  sun  stood 
still.  "  The  sun  and  moon  stood  still  in  their  habitation : 
at  the  light  of  Thine  arrows  they  went,  and  at  the  shining 
of  Thy  glittering  spear."  5 

At  night-time  the  canopy  was  the  lesser  light  or  moon. 
"  Fontenelle,  who  was  always  so  ingenious  in  determining 
the  conditions  of  existence  in  the  planetary  worlds,  expresses 
himself  thus  in  regard  to  Saturn :  (  We  would  be  much  aston- 
ished to  see  over  our  heads  at  night  that  great  ring,  which 
would  extend  as  a  half-circle  from  one  end  of  the  horizon 
to  the  other,  and  which,  reflecting  the  light  to  us,  would 


4 Ps.  civ:  1-6.       °Hab.  iii:  11. 


GENESIS  159 

produce  the  effect  of  a  continuous  moon.'  "  6  Kawlinson 
tells  us  in  his  History  of  Ancient  Egypt  that  "  under 
Necherophes  (Nebka?)  the  Libyans,  who  had  revolted,  made 
their  submission  on  account  of  a  sudden  increase  in  the 
moon's  size,  which  terrified  them."  7  This  increase  in  size 
stamps  the  phenomenon  as  belonging  to  an  inf ailing  canopy. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  great  precipitation  accompany- 
ing the  disintegration  of  these  belts  was  in  the  higher  lati- 
tudes, beyond  the  region  of  the  greenhouse-roof.  Job  tells 
us  that  here  were  stored  the  treasures  of  snow  and  hail 
(Chap,  xxxviii:  19-23).  Under  the  canopy  evaporation 
went  on  at  a  great  rate.  ~No  doubt,  however,  the  atmosphere 
was  of  a  moist  and  misty  character,  hence  the  dews  were 
intensely  copious.  The  Scriptures  say,  the  dew  or  mist 
rose  from  the  ground  (Gen.  ii:  5-6).  Who  would  have  had 
the  hardihood  to  make  such  a  statement,  so  utterly  in  con- 
flict with  the  established  laws  of  nature,  were  the  hand  of 
revelation  not  in  this  record? 

Science  and  the  Bible  do  not  disagree.  One  is  God's 
created  record  and  the  other  is  God's  written  record.  The 
works  of  His  hand  cannot  contradict  the  works  of  His  heart ; 
in  Him  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning.  Of 
old  He  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth:  and  the  heavens 
are  the  work$  of  His  hands  (Ps.  cii:25).  The  works  of 
His  heart  are  love,  and  the  object  of  His  love  is  to  draw  all 
men  unto  Himself.  He  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  us 
the  written  word  (John  i:  1-14;  iii:  16). 

Science  and  the  Bible  do  not  disagree,  but  the  interpre- 
tations which  man  has  evolved  need  to  be  either  adjusted 
or  rejected.  When  a  proper  understanding  is  arrived  at, 
harmony  is  at  once  evident  and  the  two  testimonies  become 
essentially  one.  Now,  the  Bible  is  full  of  the  same  kind 


8  Scientific  American  Supplement)  No.  192. 
7  Vol.  ii,  chap,  xii,  p.  18. 


160  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

of  tales  as  the  ancients  have  left  us  in  their  varied  literature, 
commonly  called  myths,  but  it  is  offensive  to  a  certain  type 
of  mind  to  say  that  the  Bible  contains  these  myths.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  mental 
horizon  of  the  ancients  exists.  The  common  understanding 
of  a  myth  is  that  it  is  purely  a  fabulous  or  imaginary  tale, 
and  the  fact  is  lost  sight  of  that  it  generally  conveys  an 
important  truth  of  an  allegorical  and  religious  nature.  In 
the  light  of  this  present  hypothesis  the  nature  myths  of  these 
so-called  heathen  were  essentially  religious,  and  they  were 
not  so  far  from  the  true  religion  either,  inasmuch  as  the 
nature-types  were  pointing  the  way  to  God.  Before  taking 
exceptions  to  the  existence  of  these  myths  in  the  Bible,  then, 
their  meaning  should  first  be  ascertained. 

The  trouble  is  this:  The  truths  taught  by  the  so-called 
myths  have  been  forgotten,  the  Bible  is  a  book  of  the  past 
as  well  as  a  book  of  to-day,  and  therefore  to  understand  it 
we  must  understand  the  past.  Our  Saviour  spoke  a  parable 
of  a  sower  that  went  forth  to  sow,  that  he  might  impress 
thereby  a  spiritual  teaching.  Now,  the  solar  myth  of 
Samson,  which  we  will  investigate  later,  it  is  evident  was 
introduced  into  the  Old  Testament  not  by  spontaneous  growth 
nor  by  popular  origin,  but  as  in  the  case  of  the  parable  by 
divine  direction,  and  for  the  same  purpose,  namely,  to  set 
forth  a  spiritual  truth.  All  the  saints  living  in  those  days 
were  as  familiar  with  the  illustration  as  we  are  to-day  with 
the  settings  of  our  Saviour's  parable. 

In  the  beginning,  as  in  our  Saviour's  day,  the  hand  of 
God  was  visible.  He  planned  it  all  before  He  began  its  ful- 
filment. His  love  brooded  over  this  earth,  giving  to  man 
an  Eden  paradise.  Man,  tempted  by  the  beauty  of  this 
creation,  fell  into  the  serpent's  clutch,  worshiping  the  crea- 
tion or  creature  instead  of  the  Great  Creator.  God  in  His 
infinite  love  then  revealed  Himself,  casting  man  out  from 
the  garden  world  wherein  he  had  dwelt,  that  he  might  learn 


GENESIS  161 

the  lesson,  that  first  things  must  perish  and  that  in  the  second 
state  alone  there  is  life.  In  other  words,  matter  always  has 
been  and  always  must  be  subject  to  change.  The  spiritual 
essence  alone  is  unchangeable.  This  explains  many  of  the 
mooted  questions  of  the  theologians — the  cause  of  the  fall; 
the  mystery  of  iniquity ;  God's  love  reconciled  with  the  admis- 
sion of  sin  into  the  world,  etc.,  etc. 

Briefly,  the  drama  of  sin,  and  of  death,  and  of  resur- 
rection, was  all  revealed  in  the  type,  and  the  type  was  the 
physical  canopy  and  the  vapor-belt  which  hung  under  the 
canopy  in  the  atmosphere.  Natural  phenomena  were  used  by 
God  to  convey  the  spiritual  truth.  The  ordinary  myth 
missed  this  revelation,  the  Biblical  always  emphasized  it. 
The  Adamite  saw  the  works  of  creation,  that  they  were  good, 
and  forthwith  worshiped  the  creature  (serpent),  leaving  out 
the  Creator.  This  was  the  act  of  partaking  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge.8  Man  as  a  free  agent  thus  brought  on  his  own 
fall,  for  God  in  His  infinite  goodness  and  justice  of  neces- 
sity had  to  disclose  the  nature  of  creation.  This  left  man  with 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  with  knowledge  of  the  Creator 
and  the  creature,  and  it  also  left  him  the  heritage  of  original 
sin,  for  the  fallen  serpent  or  vapor  skies  allowed  the  actinic 
rays  to  enter,  and  these  produced  fermentation,  violence,  and 
a  quickened  life.  The  first  drunkenness  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  is  that  of  Noah's.  It  is  postulated  that  a  remnant  of 
the  Edenic  canopy  caused  the  deluge  of  the  Scriptures.  In 
the  world  that  was  before  this  flood,  Noah  never  knew  the 
fruit  of  the  vine  to  produce  such  results,  but  with  the  passing 
of  the  canopy  new  conditions  of  sun-fire  were  introduced,  to 
which  he  was  not  accustomed.  His  sin  was,  therefore,  the 
result  of  ignorance;  immediately  afterwards  he  preached  a 
sermon.  In  this  age  we  do  not  listen  to  men  recovering  from 


8  The  tree  in  mythology  will  be  shown  in  subsequent  chapters  to  be 
the  canopy. 
11 


162  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

a  spree,  but  Noah's  voice  has  sounded  on  down  through  the 
ages.  The  longevity  of  the  ancients  was  a  direct  result  of 
the  more  healthful  conditions,  though  undoubtedly  the  canopy 
prevented  their  keeping  track  of  the  years.  Hence  the  great 
age  of  Methuselah  and  the  rest  of  the  antediluvians  was  due 
to  the  two  causes.  When  sun-fire  broke  in,  the  quickened 
life  brought  a  swifter  death. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  a 
certain  early  period  the  "  Egyptians  neither  employed  nor 
knew  any  years  of  longer  term  than  four  months.  The  proof 
of  this,  admits  one  of  the  most  ardent  champions  of  the  high 
antiquity  of  Egypt,  is  that,  later,  when  the  year  consisted  of 
twelve  months,  three  seasons  were  designated,  each  com- 
prising four  months,  which  were  indicated  hieroglyphically 
by  the  word  ier,  and  by  a  sign  that  may  mean  a  season  or 
a  year,  indifferently."  9 

But  to  return  to  the  heritage  of  sin :  With  the  removal 
of  the  Edenic  canopy  evil  conditions  came  upon  the  earth. 
"  Cursed  is  the  ground,"  says  the  Lord  God,  "  for  thy  sake ; 
in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life."  10 
The  protecting  canopy  which  was  cast  down  was  the  serpent. 
"  And  the  Lord  God  said  unto  the  serpent,  Because  thou 
hast  done  this,  thou  art  cursed  above  all  cattle  (behemah), 
and  above  every  beast  of  the  field ;  upon  thy  belly  shalt  thou 
go,  and  dust  shalt  thou  eat  all  the  days  of  thy  life."  11 

The  Bible  myths,  then,  portray  the  story  of  the  conflict, 
and  present  both  the  good  and  evil  sides  thereof.  In  the 
Walam  Olum,  or  Red  Score  of  the  Lenape,  "  The  cosmogony 
describes  the  formation  of  the  world  by  the  Great  Manito, 
and  its  subsequent  despoliation  by  the  spirit  of  the  waters, 
under  the  form  of  a  serpent.  The  happy  days  are  depicted 


8F.  De  Lanoye,  "Wonders  of  Art  and  Archaeology:  Rameses  the 
Great,"  p.  31.  Dr.  H.  De  Brugsch,  "  History  of  Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Period  of  its  Existence,"  Leipzig,  1859,  p.  26. 

MGen.  iii:17.       uGen.  iii:14. 


GENESIS  163 

when  men  lived  without  wars  or  sickness,  and  food  was  at 
all  times  abundant.  Evil  beings  of  mysterious  power  intro- 
duced cold  and  war  and  sickness  and  premature  death.  Then 
began  strife  and  long  wanderings."  12 

Primitive  man  began  to  go  astray  in  his  religion  by  tak- 
ing the  natural  phenomena  of  the  canopy  and  attributing  to 
them  life;  then  he  deified  the  creations  of  his  mind.  He 
passed  from  the  worship  of  God  to  the  worship  of  the  works 
and  forces  which  God  had  made,  from  reverence  for  the 
creator  to  reverence  for  the  created.  Thus  canopy  worship 
became  simply  a  form  of  animism.  It  follows  that  a  just 
God  had  to  remove  the  cause  of  this  error.  He  had  to 
dethrone  the  gods  of  the  heathen. 

The  first  step  in  dethronement  was  the  revealing  of  the 
true  sun  through  the  equatorial  slit  or  opening  between  the 
northern  and  southern  halves  of  the  divided  canopy.  In 
Genesis  this  event,  which  follows  immediately  after  the  fall 
of  man  into  the  error  of  serpent  worship,  is  described  as  the 
introduction  of  "  a  flaming  sword  which  turned  every  way, 
to  keep  the  way  of  the  tree  of  life."  13  To  keep  the  way 
open  for  man  to  see  the  Creator  through  whom  there  is  life. 
The  tree,  the  eating  of  which  caused  them  to  know  good 
and  evil,  perished. 

The  two  halves  of  the  canopy,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
were  the  pillars  of  Hercules.  Job  speaks  of  them  as  the 
"  pillars  of  heaven,"  and  the  opening  as  the  "  chambers  of 
the  south."  The  mountains  of  the  cloud-belt  were  removed.14 
Verily  these  mountains  have  a  new  significance.  Mount 
Olympus,  the  home  of  the  gods.  Ossa  heaped  on  Pelion. 
Jacob's  ladder,  etc. 

Under  the  name  of  Hercules  the  Romans,  Greeks,  and 
Phoenicians  worshiped  the  sun.  The  story  of  Samson  is  the 


12  D.  G.  Brinton,  "  The  Lenapg  and  Their  Legends,"  p.  164. 
"Gen.  iii:   24.       "Job  ix:   5-9;  xxvi:    11. 


164  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Biblical  account  of  the  same  sky  hero.  The  Hebrew  form 
of  his  name  is,  Shimshon,  which  is  a  variant  form  of 
Shamash — the  name  of  the  sun  in  Babylonian  and  Hebrew.15 

Like  Hercules,  Samson  performed  twelve  labors  in  order 
to  free  himself.  First,  he  rent  the  lion  as  Hercules  did  the 
Nemean  sky  monster,  the  skin  of  which  he  then  used  as  a 
cloak.  The  meaning  of  this  is  that  the  conquering  sun  was 
obscured  or  hidden  by  the  enveloping  cloud.  Second,  he 
extracted  honey.  Third,  he  slew  thirty  men.  Fourth,  he 
caught  some  foxes.  Fifth,  with  hip  and  thigh  he  made  a 
slaughter.  Sixth,  he  broke  certain  cords.  Seventh,  he  slew 
a  thousand  men.  Eighth,  he  carried  off  the  gates,  posts, 
bar  and  all.  Ninth,  he  broke  green  withes.  Tenth,  he  broke 
the  new  ropes.  Eleventh,  he  carried  off  the  pin  and  beam 
of  the  sky  temple  (Latin,  templum,  expanse,  open  place), 
the  original  sky  home  of  the  gods.  Twelfth,  he  pulled  down 
this  temple  on  his  own  head.16 

But  though  related  to  the  Greek,  Eoman,  and  Phoanician, 
this  solar  myth  also  bears  a  close  analogy  to  the  Babylonian. 
Jastrow  says :  "  The  Biblical  Samson  appears  to  be  mod- 
elled upon  the  character  of  Gilgamesh.  Both  are  heroes,  both 
conquerors,  both  strangle  a  lion,  and  both  are  wooed  by  a 
woman,  the  one  by  Delilah,  the  other  by  Ishtar,  and  both 
through  a  woman  are  shorn  of  their  strength.  The  historical 
traits  are  of  course  different."  17 

The  Bible  tells  us  of  these  things  because  they  are  part 
of  the  error  of  the  ages,  and  the  Bible  presents  both  sides, 
and  it  is  written  for  all  Eternity,  and  God's  purposes  must 
be  true,  though  every  man  be  a  liar.18  "  Nay,  but,  O  man, 
who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God?  Shall  the  thing 


"Morris  Jastrow,  "The  Religions  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  chap, 
xxiii,  p.   515. 

16  Judges  xiv-xvi. 

1T "  Religions  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  pp.  515-516. 

"Roffi.  iii:    3-4. 


GENESIS  165 

formed  say  to  Him  that  formed  it,  Why  hast  Thou  made  me 
thus  ?  "  19  "  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh : 
the  Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision."  20 

Nay,  but,  O  man,  surely  it  may  be  said  of  you  that  ye 
have  questioned  the  very  record  of  the  flood  itself  (II  Pet. 
iii :  5-6),  and,  what  makes  it  worse,  this  is  not  a  myth  which 
you  have  put  the  interrogation  mark  against,  but  a  matter  of 
scientific  and  Biblical  fact. 

The  Noachian  flood  probably  extended  over  a  vast  terri- 
tory in  Central  Asia  and  perhaps  portions  of  Europe.  Many 
similar  catastrophes  of  a  like  character  occurred  at  about 
the  same  time.  The  submergence  was  connected  with  the 
Glacial  period.  The  Ice-king  held  in  his  grip  four  million 
square  miles  of  the  American  continent  and  two  million 
square  miles  of  western  Europe.  These  immense  areas  were 
buried  under  a  mile  or  more  of  glacial  ice.  The  shifting 
of  this  vast  weight  brought  about,  as  we  have  seen  in  our 
scientific  chapters,  a  number  of  secondary  results,  amongst 
which  may  be  included  the  great  inundations  recorded  by 
prehistoric  man. 

"  The  principal  countries  in  which  these  Flood-stories  are 
found  are  Greece  (Deucalion's  deluge),  Lithuania,  Austra- 
lia, Hawaii  and  other  Polynesian  islands,  Cashmir,  Thibet, 
Kamchatka,  different  parts  of  India,  and  America  (where 
such  stories  are  particularly  numerous)  ;  they  are  not  found 
(according  to  Andree)  in  northern  and  central  Asia;  they 
are  also  absent  in  Egypt,  China,  and  Japan,  and  almost 
absent  in  other  parts  of  Africa  (except  where  they  are  due  to 
Christian  influence).21 

"  It  was  maintained  by  the  late  Professor  Prestwich, 
on  the  ground  of  certain  geological  indications  (especially  the 
so-called  ' Rubble  Drift'),  that  long  after  the  appearance 


19  Rom.  ix:20.       ^Ps.  ii:4. 

a  Westminster    Commentaries,   Gen.   The  Deluge,   pp.    101-102. 


166  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

of  paleolithic  man,  there  was  a  submergence  of  the  crust  of 
the  earth,  chiefly  in  W.  Europe,  but  also  in  N.  W.  Africa, 
though  extending  doubtfully  as  far  E.  as  Palestine,  causing 
a  great  inundation  of  the  sea,  which,  though  of  short  dura- 
tion, destroyed  a  vast  amount  of  animal  and  some  human 
life,  so  that  some  species  of  animals  {e.g..,  the  hippopotamus 
in  Sicily)  became  extinct  in  regions  which  they  formerly 
inhabited;  and  he  suggests  that  this  inundation  may  have' 
accounted  for  the  above-mentioned  traditions."  22 

The  Commentator  thinks  that  it  mitigates  against  the 
truth  of  Prestwich's  theory  that  in  Europe  itself  Elood 
stories  are  comparatively  scarce  and  that  they  are  more  fre- 
quent in  countries  such  as  North  and  Central  America.  On 
the  other  hand,  where  flood,  and  fire  (volcanic),  and  earth- 
quake, turned  the  earth  into  a  cemetery,  where  was  there 
a  man  left  to  preserve  the  record?  Dead  men  tell  no  tales. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  Europe  was  inundated 
at  the  time  of  the  Noachian  submergence.  The  cataclysm 
simply  overwhelmed  the  known  earth  of  the  Adamite  (Cau- 
casian) race.  The  whole  area  of  northern  Asia  is  still  said 
to  be  slowly  rising,  which  may  be  taken  as  an  indication 
that  the  figure  of  the  continent  has  not  yet  regained  its 
normal  condition.  Scattered  lakes  over  this  part  of  Asia 
are  inhabited  by  the  same  animals.  How  did  they  get  from 
one  to  the  other?  Intervening  stretches  of  desert  contain 
semi-fossil  shells  of  the  species  still  living  in  the  lakes.23 

Of  Central  Asia  and  southern  Siberia  G.  Frederick 
Wright  says :  "  The  geological  conditions  are  such  as  can 
only  be  explained  by  an  extensive  submergence  of  the  region 
where  the  Scriptures  and  tradition  locate  the  Elood  which 
destroyed  the  whole  human  race,  excepting  Noah  and  his 
family.  The  evidences  of  such  a  deluge  are  not  one,  but 


Hid.,  p.  102.       *  American  Geologist,  vol.  v,  No.  3,  p.  182. 


GENESIS  167 

several,  and  extend  from  Mongolia  to  the  western  borders 
of  Kussia."  24 

With  the  close  of  the  Glacial  period  it  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  all  remnants  of  the  canopy  and  vapor-belt  at  once 
disappeared.  The  Babel  Builders  (Gen.  xi:4-9)  sought  to 
reach  this  canopy  or  heaven.  Its  ever-changing  appearance 
caused  great  confusion  of  tongues  and  of  thought  as  the 
various  peoples  described  different  scenes  to  each  other,  and 
converted  the  natural  phenomena  into  heroes  and  demi- 
gods; and,  furthermore,  they  worshiped  these  ever-changing 
appearances  as  gods  and  devils,  adding  confusion  to  the 
already  existing  chaotic  discord  and  disorder. 

Berosus  records  the  Chaldean  version  of  this  event  in 
complete  agreement  with  the  Biblical  account,  as  follows: 
"  They  say  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  glorying 
in  their  own  strength  and  size  and  despising  the  gods,  under- 
took to  raise  a  tower  whose  top  should  reach  the  sky,  in  the 
place  in  which  Babylon  now  stands ;  but  when  it  approached 
the  heaven  the  wind  assisted  the  gods  and  overthrew  the 
work  upon  its  contrivers,  and  its  ruins  are  said  to  be  still 
at  Babylon;  and  the  gods  introduced  a  diversity  of  tongues 
among  men,  who  till  that  time  had  all  spoken  the  same 
language ;  and  a  war  arose  between  Cronus  and  Titan.  The 
place  in  which  they  built  the  tower  is  now  called  Babylon, 
on  account  of  the  confusion  of  tongues,  for  confusion  is  by 
the  Hebrews  called  Babel." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  the  gods  were  afraid  that 
man  would  reach  their  abode.  Elsewhere  this  version  clearly 
states  that  they  were  building  "  in  order  that  they  might 
mount  up  into  heaven."  25 

Of  the  confusion  of  tongues  we  have  this  to  say:     The 

"McClure's,  June,  1901,  vol.  xvii,  No.  2,  p.  134. 
25  Rawlinson,   "  Seven  Great  Monarchies,"  vol.  i,  Chaldea,  Assyria. 
Note  141  to  chap,  vii  of  "  First  Monarchy,"  p.  526. 


168  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

changing  aspects  of  the  sky  caused  the  words  which  the 
peoples  used  in  describing  what  they  saw  to  change  with  the 
same  rapidity  as  the  scenes  themselves.  While  all  this  was 
but  a  phase  of  inanimate  nature,  yet  it  seemed  ever  to  be 
producing  new  forms,  hence  in  describing  it  the  ancients 
confused  its  various  phenomena  with  the  idea  of  sex.  Gen- 
der-terminations are  a  part  of  the  bacillus  which  was  thus 
injected  into  the  tongues  of  the  nations.26  E^ut  though  this 
gave  rise  to  a  great  many  different  languages,  the  fact 
remains  that  there  were  old  root  languages  from  which  these 
new  languages  were  descended,  and  they  of  course  did  not 
originate  in  this  way.  Andrew  Lang  says : 

"  After  taking  my  degree  in  1868,  I  had  leisure  to  read 
a  good  deal  of  mythology  in  the  legends  of  all  races,  and 
found  my  distrust  of  Mr.  Max  Miiller's  reasoning  increase 
upon  me.  The  main  cause  was  that  whereas  Mr.  Max  Miiller 
explained  Greek  myths  by  etymologies  of  words  in  the  Aryan 
languages,  chiefly  Greek,  Latin,  Slavonic,  and  Sanskrit,  I 
kept  finding  myths  very  closely  resembling  those  of  Greece 
among  Red  Indians,  Kaffirs,  Eskimo,  Samoyeds,  Kamilaroi, 
Maoris,  and  Cahrocs.  Now,  if  Aryan  myths  arose  from  a 
6  disease '  of  Aryan  languages,  it  certainly  did  seem  an  odd 
thing  that  myths  so  similar  to  these  abounded  where  non- 
Aryan  languages  alone  prevailed.  Did  a  kind  of  linguistic 
measles  affect  all  tongues  alike,  from  Sanskrit  to  Choctaw, 
and  everywhere  produce  the  same  ugly  scars  in  religion  and 
myth  ?  "  27  In  reply  to  Lang's  query  we  would  say  that  it 


26 "In  ancient  languages  every  one  of  these  words  (sky,  earth,  sea, 
rain)  had  necessarily  a  termination  expressive  of  gender,  and  this 
naturally  produced  in  the  mind  the  corresponding  idea  of  sex,  so  that 
these  names  received  not  only  an  individual  but  a  sexual  character." 
Max  Miiller,  Chips,  iv,  62.  We  explain  this  matter  by  the  theory  that 
man  called  the  lifeless  things  and  phenomena  of  the  canopy  male  or 
female — by  using  gender-terminations — as  a  result  of  his  habit  of 
regarding  the  lifeless  things,  etc.,  as  personal  beings  and  as  gods. 

27  "  Modern  Mythology,"  p.  4. 


GENESIS  169 

is  quite  evident  that  the  germ  which  scattered  the  linguistic 
measles  in  all  the  root  languages  was  the  ever-changing  sky 
phenomena.  Max  Miiller  should  not  have  confined  this 
infectious  disease  to  the  Aryan  language  alone. 

But  we  have  had  enough  about  languages,  so  let  us  return 
to  the  sky  scenes  themselves.  At  a  time  when  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  spanned  the  equatorial  heavens  there  was  an  open 
spot  or  egg  hole  in  the  distant  northern  sky.  The  Bible  calls 
this  spot  "  Baal-peor  " :  Baal,  "  the  lord,"  Peor,  "  the  open- 
ing." Israel  fell  into  the  worship  of  this  dreadful  nature 
cult  and  was  accordingly  punished  (Num.  xxv:3-5). 

Nature  or  creature  worship  always  dies  hard.  In 
Ezekiel's  time  this  evil  thing  had  not  yet  been  extirpated 
(Ezek.  viii :  Y-10).  In  the  winter  the  sun,  being  in  southern 
latitudes,  was  of  course  far  away  from  this  hole  which  was 
the  only  place  in  the  heavens  where  he  could  be  seen,  hence 
Tammuz  was  lost.  In  the  prophet's  vision  every  man  saw 
this  "in  the  chambers  of  his  imagery"  (v.  12).  In  other 
words,  like  Ptolemy's  rings,  this  cult  was  only  an  echo.  Bel 
worship  was  indeed  a  terrible  thing.  Confusion's  place  was 
at  this  sky-hole  or  '  gate  of  God.'  It  is  recorded  that  the 
prophet  came  to  "  the  door  of  the  gate  of  the  Lord's  house 
which  was  toward  the  north;  and,  behold,  there  sat  women 
weeping  for  Tammuz"  (v.  14).  Tammuz  means  "the 
hidden  lost  one."  Tammuz,  it  will  plainly  be  seen,  was 
originally  the  hidden  sun,  and  even  at  this  time  it  was  known 
that  this  weeping  was  for  the  sun.  Sun  worship  was  then 
in  full  possession  of  the  Lord's  house  itself  (v.  16). 

It  is  recorded  of  Tammuz  that  he  was  seen  bleeding. 
This  is  easily  accounted  for,  as  the  great  sky-hole  must  have 
often  been  decked  out  in  ruddy  or  sunset  hues.  This  door  or 
opening  into  the  Jieavens  proved  like  the  serpent  a  snare.  It 
is  more  than  likely  that  our  Saviour  referred  to  it  when  he 
said,  "  I  am  the  door,"  « the  way,"  "  the  truth,"  "  the  life." 
The  door  of  the  shining  hole  produced  a  stupendous  error,  but 


170  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

now  we  know  that  first  (natural)  things  must  perish  that  the 
last  (spiritual)  may  live. 

The  Indians  of  northern  California  have  a  legend  which 
localizes  this  sky-hole  over  Mount  Shasta.  They  say  that 
the  Creator  made  it  first.  The  account  is  as  follows :  "  Bor- 
ing a  hole  in  the  sky,  using  a  large  stone  as  an  auger,  he 
pushed  down  snow  and  ice  until  they  reached  the  desired 
height;  then  he  stepped  from  cloud  to  cloud  down  to  the 
great  icy  pile,  and  from  it  to  the  earth,  where  he  planted 
the  first  trees  by  merely  putting  his  finger  into  the  soil  here 
and  there.  The  sun  began  to  melt  the  snow;  the  snow  pro- 
duced water ;  the  water  ran  down  the  sides  of  the  mountains, 
refreshed  the  trees,  and  made  rivers.  The  Creator  gathered 
the  leaves  that  fell  from  the  trees,  blew  upon  them,  and  they 
became  birds,  etc."  28 

The  story  of  Odysseus  in  the  cave  of  Calypso  (Greek 
Kalupto,  to  cover)  is  but  one  of  the  many  myths  which  have 
arisen  from  this  same  scene.  In  Calypso's  grotto-cave, 
located  in  the  Isle  of  Ogygia,  in  the  hub  of  the  sky  sea,  were 
stars  or  nails  that  were  fixed  in  the  wondrous  azure  blue. 
This  was  the  egg-land,  or  beginning  place  where  man  first 
learned  astronomy.  Man  in  those  early  days  not  only  knew 
God  through  the  gospel  of  the  stars,  but  also  through  the 
beauties  of  the  canopy,  which  were  to  them  who  were  of  a 
true  heart  a  guide  and  type  to  things  celestial. 

One  of  the  most  glorious  types  was  that  of  the  cherubim. 
When  the  flaming  sword,  the  bright  shaft  of  sunlight,  first 
pierced  the  Edenic  canopy,  the  sun  itself  floated  as  in  a  vapor 
arc  or  shell  accompanied  by  four  mock  suns  surrounded  with 
halos.  These  were  the  cherubim,  types  of  the  redeemed 
in  future  glory,  true  consorts  of  the  living  Son  of  God.  The 
first  like  a  lion,  the  demean  beast  which  Hercules  the  sun 
was  sent  to  slay.  The  second,  "  like  a  calf,"  the  solar  bull 


Bancroft,  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  90. 


GENESIS  171 

famed  in  the  mythology  of  the  ancients.  The  third  had  a 
face  as  a  man,  made  in  the  image  of  the  solar  orb.  The 
fourth,  a  flying  eagle — the  winged  disk  being  Assyria's  old 
emblem  of  the  sun. 

In  Genesis  iii,  the  cherubim  appear  as  guardians  of  God's 
abode  and  of  the  spiritual  treasures  reserved  therein.  The 
passage  which  should  on  all  grounds  be  compared  is  Ezek. 
xxviii :  13-17.  Ezekiel  states  that  he  was  by  the  river  of 
Chebar  (chap,  i:  3)  when  he  received  this  word.  This  river 
was  a  large,  navigable  canal,  not  far  from  Mppur,  southeast 
of  Babylon.29  But  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  site;  it  is 
not  where  the  prophet  had  the  vision  that  interests  us,  but 
it  is  the  substance,  the  mythological  fact.  It  does  not  follow 
that  he  actually  saw  the  wheels;  what  the  text  tells  us  is 
that  he  saw  a  vision.  In  his  mind's  eye  he  saw  what  even 
then  probably  was  a  remote  occurrence. 

"  In  Ezekiel  xxviii :  13-17  there  is  a  description  where 
the  e  prince  of  Tyre '  is  represented  as  a  glorious  being 
bedecked  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  who  had  been  placed 
'  in  Eden,  the  garden  of  God,'  had  there  (  walked  up  and 
down  in  the  midst  of  stones  of  fire '  (i.e.,  flashing  gems), 
but  had  forfeited  his  high  estate  by  pride,  and  had  been 
expelled  from  the  holy  '  mountain  of  God '  by  a  cherub. 
Ezekiel,  it  is  probable,  had  access  to  traditions  about  Para- 
dise more  ample  than  those  preserved  in  Genesis,  and  per- 
haps in  some  respects  different  from  them ;  and  he  makes  use 
of  them  here  for  the  purpose  of  representing  pictorially  the 
fall  of  the  King  of  Tyre."  30 

"  And  He  rode  upon  a  cherub,  and  did  fly ;  yea,  He  did 
fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind."  The  same  authority  says 
of  the  passage  just  cited :  "  Ps.  xviii :  10  would  suggest  that 
the  conception  arose  in  a  personification  of  the  thunder-cloud 


29  University  of  Pennsylvania  texts,  vol.  ix,  p.  28. 

80  Westminster  Commentaries,  Gen.  The  Cherubim,  p.  61. 


172  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

(upon,  or  within,  which,  as  the  context  of  the  verse  plainly 
shews,  the  Hebrews  believed  Jehovah  to  be  borne  along)."  31 

From  the  '  prince  of  Tyre  '  to  Satan,  or  '  the  prince  of  the 
power  of  the  air/  is  only  a  step.  Satan  in  Arabic  means  a 
serpent.  The  apostle  was  sent,  To  open  certain  eyes,  and 
to  turn  them  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power  of 
Satan  or  the  serpent  unto  God  (Acts  xxvi:  18).  In  other 
words,  His  commission  was  to  turn  men  from  the  material 
to  the  spiritual,  from  the  darkness,  the  seed  of  which  was 
planted  by  the  canopy,  to  the  light.  And  this  light  we  find  is 
bearing  fruit  abundantly  in  the  scientific  revelations  of  this 
present  age.  The  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  (Eph.  ii:  2) 
is  the  prince  of  this  world,  and  he  is  cast  out  (John  xii:  31). 

The  serpent  was  a  vapor-belt.  Moses  lifted  up  a  figure 
still  known  to  all  the  people  in  that  day  as  a  memorial  of  a 
creation  that  had  passed  away,  and  they  were  to  look  by 
faith  for  a  new  order  in  a  coming  Saviour.  The  barber's 
pole  is  still  a  survival  of  serpent  symbolism  amongst  us. 
The  ribbon  painted  spirally  around  their  sign  represented 
originally  the  serpent.  Formerly  the  barbers  were  doctors, 
thus  naturally  they  adopted  the  sign  and  symbol  of  the 
healer. 

The  old  creation  that  had  passed  was  an  Eden,  but 
because  the  people  worshiped  the  creature  instead  of  the 
Great  Creator,  the  God  of  Nature  was  forced  to  reveal  Him- 
self and  to  cast  down  the  serpent  upon  the  ground.  The 
Eden  conditions  passed,  and  man  has  had  to  earn  his  liveli- 
hood by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  ever  since.  Jer.  x:  11-12; 
Isa.  xix:  1;  Rev.  xii:  9,  15.  This  last  quotation  shows  how 
the  error  of  the  ages  has  lived  on  down  to  our  time.  Ps. 
xix:  1;  Job  xxvi:  8-13;  Gen.  iii:  1,  14;  Isa.  xxvii:  1;  Ps. 
Ixxiv:  13-15. 

The  following  passages  of   Scripture   introduce  many 


IUd. 


GENESIS  173 

features  not  presented  in  the  text  for  lack  of  space.  The 
summary  only  suggests  some  of  the  riches  which  may  be 
unearthed. 

Introduction.     Heb.  xi:3,  7;   Isa.  xl:21-22;   II  Pet.  iii:  3-6. 

Creation.     Gen.  i:6-7. 

The  Beginning.     Ps.  xixrl;   Amos  ix:6;   Ps.  xxxiii:6-7;   xxiv:l-2. 

Dew  ascending  from  the  ground.    Gen.  ii:5-6. 

Heavens  stretched  out.  Job  xxxvii:18;  Isa.  xlii:5;  xliv:24;  xlv:12; 
li:13. 

Water  Heavens  (Secondary  vapor-belts  held  in  suspension  under  the 
canopy).  Job  xxxviii:!,  4-11,  16-17,  37;  Ps.  civ:2-6. 

Water  heavens  worshipped.  Punishment  followed.  Jer.  x:  11-12; 
Isa.  xix:l;  Rev.  xii:9,  15. 

Serpent,  i.e.,  serpent-like  belt.  Job  xxvi:8-13;  Gen.  iiirl,  14;  Isa. 
xxvii:!,  Ps.  Ixxiv:  13-15;  Rev.  xii.  Note  specially  v.  15.  Moses  lifted 
up  a  sign  familiar  to  the  multitude.  Num.  xxi:9;  John  iii:  14-15. 

Treasures  of  snow.     Job  xxxviii:  22-23;   Rev.  xi:19;   xvi:21. 

Falling  vapor-belts.  Job  ix:5-8.  In  v.  8  bamah  is  the  word  trans- 
lated waves,  it  means  in  Hebrew  "  heights."  Hag.  ii:6,  21;  Joel  ii:2-ll; 
Isa.  ii:  19-21;  Heb.  xii:26-27;  Hab.  iii:6-15. 

The  Flood.     Gen.  vii.     Note  specially  v.  11. 

Rainbow  after  canopy  fell.  This  phenomenon  could  not  take  place 
until  the  vapor-heavens  cleared.  Gen.  ix:8-17. 

Babel.     Gten.  xi:4-9. 

Pillar  of  cloud.     Ex.  xiii:  21-22;  xiv:  19-24. 

Ancient  sun  or  shiner  stood  still.     Joshua.  x:12;   Hab.  iii:  11. 

Flaming  Sword.     Gen.  iii: 24. 

Cherubim.  Gen.  iii:  24.  Connecting  link  with  canopy.  Ps. 
xviii:7-16;  civ: 3-4;  Ezek.  x. 

Good  canopy  turned  evil.     Ezek.  xxviii:  14-17. 

Wheels.     Ezek.  i. 

Horses.     Zech.  i:8;  Rev.  vi:2-8;  Hab.  iii: 6-15. 

Voice  of  Many  Waters.  Ezek.  xliii:2;  Dan.  x:6;  Rev.  i:15;  xiv:2; 
xix:6. 

Pyramid.  The  witness  of  the  shadow  of  the  earth  on  the  canopy. 
Isa.  xix:  19-20;  Jer.  xxxii:  17-20. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

HINDU  MYTHS 

"  THE  gods  themselves  cannot  recall  their  gifts."  *  Vedic 
literature  contains  the  record  of  five  elements,  fire,  water, 
earth,  air,  and  nature,  the  latter  containing  Agni,  the  '  Golden 
Germ/  which  is  evidently  the  creative  power  seen  in  the  fire 
ring  or  belt.  Edward  Washburn  Hopkins  says :  "  The 
world  was  at  first  water ;  thereon  floated  a  cosmic  golden  egg 
(the  principle  of  fire).  Out  of  this  came  Spirit  that  desired ; 
and  by  desire  he  begat  the  worlds  and  all  things.  It  is 
improbable  that  in  this  somewhat  Orphic  mystery  there  lies 
any  pre- Vedic  myth.  The  notion  comes  up  first  in  the  golden 
germ  and  egg-born  bird  (sun)  of  the  Rik.  It  is  not  specially 
Aryan,  and  is  found  even  among  the  American  Indians."  2 

From  the  canopy  continually  came  new  sky-scenes  which 
the  ancients  thought  were  manifestations  of  their  gods,  hence 
according  to  their  records  "  Agni  is  Varuna  and  is  Indra." 
Plainly  Agni,  the  reflected  light  of  the  sun,  was  seen  in 
Varuna  and  in  Indra.  All  fire  was  seen  emerging  from 
the  upper  dome  of  gauze.  Hopkins  describes  the  attributes 
of  Indra  as  follows : 

"  Indra  has  been  identified  with  f  storm/  with  the  '  sky/ 
with  the  '  year  ' ;  also  with  '  sun  '  and  with  e  fire  '  in  general. 
But  if  he  be  taken  as  he  is  found  in  the  hymns,  it  will  be 
noticed  at  once  that  he  is  too  stormy  to  be  the  sun;  too 
luminous  to  be  the  storm;  too  near  to  the  phenomena  of  the 
monsoon  to  be  the  year  or  the  sky ;  too  rainy  to  be  fire ;  too 
alien  from  every  one  thing  to  be  any  one  thing.  He  is  too 
celestial  to  be  wholly  atmospheric;  too  atmospheric  to  be 
celestial ;  too  earthly  to  be  either.  A  most  tempting  solution 


1  Tennyson.       2"The  Religions  of  India,"  chap,  ix,  p.  208. 
174 


HINDU  MYTHS  175 

is  that  offered  by  Bergaigne,  who  sees  in  Indra  sun  or  light- 
ning. Yet  does  this  explanation  not  explain  all,  and  it  is 
more  satisfactory  than  others  only  because  it  is  broader; 
while  it  is  not  yet  broad  enough.  Indra,  in  Bergaigne's 
opinion,  stands,  however,  nearer  to  fire  than  to  sun."  3 

Indra  was  the  clear  sky  or  sun.  Dyaus  also  was  the  true 
sky.  His  name  is  derived  from  Dyu  "  to  shine."  Zeus  comes 
from  the  same  root. 

O  Agni,  give  us  eyes  that  we  may  see 

The  mighty  Indra,  in  his  shining  car, 

Ride  o'er  the  canopy,  the  great  enfolder! 

His  golden  whip,  the  ray  of  penciled  light, 

In  his  strong  arms.     His  ruddy  cheeks  aglow — 

The  clear-sky  of  the  heavens  towards  the  poles 

All  reddened  by  prismatic  rays  of  light. 

The  golden  helmet  of  the  crowned  sun, 

Like  a  lamp  flaming  in  a  heavy  mist — 

All  nature  proving  that  the  gods  are  one. 

O   Agni!    Thou   art   terrible.— We  fear!— 
"Yea,  when  the  waters  covered  everywhere 
"  They  held  the  germ,  they  generated  light — 
"Then  came  from  the  one  spirit,  breath  of  gods. 
"  May  he  not  hurt  us,  he  the  Lord  of  beings." 

May  he  not  hurt  us. — Agni,  hurt  us  not!  4 

Indra  the  clear  sky  conquered  all  the  Asura,  including 
Varuna  Asura,  the  dragon  serpent,  whose  eyes  were  magni- 
fied additions  or  haloes  of  the  sun.  She  grew  up  over  and 
covered  all  the  other  Asuras,  as  a  canopy  drifting  towards 
the  poles  always  did. 

Zenaide  A.  Eagozin  says :  "  Now,  Sanskrit  has  a  root 
vri,  '  to  cover ' — a  prolific  one,  which  can  be  traced  in  many 
words  of  kindred  meanings — and  one  of  its  most  direct  for- 
mations is  this  very  name  of  Yaruna.  It  is  as  though  we 
called  the  sky  '  the  coverer,  the  enfolder/  *  *  *  All 
ancient  peoples  used  to  say  that  '  the  heavens  cover  or 

3  Ibid.,  ch.  iv,  pp.  91-92. 

4  Adapted  to  the  present  interpretation.    After  a  famous  hymn,  etc., 
from  the  Rig  Veda. 


176  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

encompass  the  earth  and  all  it  contains/  sometimes  adding 
'  like  a  tent ?  or  '  like  a  roof ' — and  meant  it  literally,  not 
metaphorically."  5 

"  I  will  sing  forth  unto  the  universal  king  a  high,  deep 
prayer,  dear  to  renowned  Varuna,  who,  as  a  butcher  a  hide, 
has  struck  earth  apart  (from  the  sky)  for  the  sun.  Varuna 
has  extended  air  in  trees,  strength  in  horses,  milk  in  cows, 
and  has  laid  wisdom  in  hearts ;  fire  in  water ;  the  sun  in  the 
sky;  soma  in  the  stone.  Varuna  has  inverted  his  water- 
barrel  and  let  the  two  worlds  with  the  space  between  flow 
with.  With  this  (heavenly  water-barrel)  he,  the  king  of 
every  created  thing,  wets  the  whole  world,  as  a  rain  does  a 
meadow.  He  wets  the  world,  both  earth  and  heaven,  when 
he,  Varuna,  chooses  to  milk  out  (water)."  6 

Varuna  is  the  universal  encompasser,  the  canopy.  He 
stands  in  mid-air  like  Parjanya  and  upsets  a  water-barrel. 
Agni  is  the  light  or  fire  in  the  water-sky;  afterwards  he  is 
earthly  fire.  To  place  on  the  altar  that  which  was  seen  in 
the  sky  was  a  natural  sequence.  Fire  worship  is  the  logical 
result  of  seeing  fire  in  heaven.  Indra  is  the  true  sun  seen 
floating  above  Varuna  in  a  boat  or  vapor-arc.  In  the  Egyp- 
tian myth,  Nu-t  is  depicted  as  a  water-sky  with  stars  above 
her.  The  hymns  and  prayers  to  these  Vedic  gods  are 
naturally  much  confused,  for  the  reason  that  the  ever-chang- 
ing features  of  the  zonal  cloud  system  resulted  in  the  votaries 
of  one  age  emphasizing  a  feature  known  as  a  god  which  the 
peoples  of  a  following  generation  perhaps  could  not  distin- 
guish. Thus  Indra  might  be  obscured  by  Varuna  Asura 
growing  up  over  and  covering  him  from  view. 

"  He,  men,  is  Indra,"  as  the  Vedas  say,  and  Agni  is 
Varuna  and  is  Indra.  This  confusion  was  caused  by  the 
ever-changing  appearance  of  the  sky-scene.  It  reminds  us 
of  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel.  He  slew  the  snake 

6 "The  Story  of  Vedic  India,"  ch.  v,  fl  8,  pp.  140,  141, 
6  "  Religions  of  India,"  pp.  65-66.    Rig  Veda  T,  85, 


HINDU  MYTHS  177 

that  lay  upon  the  hills.  He  Vritra  slew.  Watched  by  the 
snake,  the  waters  stood  on  high.  What  time  the  water-cov- 
ered cave  he  opened,  the  waters  freed. — Like  bellowing  kine 
they  swiftly  flowed  to  earth.7 

The  text  says :  "  He  men  is  Indra  of  the  long  red  beard." 
There  are  several  features  about  Indra  that  reminds  us  of 
Thor,  the  Scandinavian  thunder  god,  Jove  the  thunderer, 
and  of  Samson.  Both  Indra  and  Thor  had  lightning  or  fire 
beards.  Samson's  hair  also  figured  as  a  cause  of  his  strength. 
He  set  fire  to  the  corn  of  the  Philistines  (Judges  xv:  4—5). 
In  Indra's  fight  with  Vritra,  the  former's  thunderbolt  is  all- 
powerful.8 

"  He  men  is  Indra  of  the  long  red  beard  "  is  plainly  the 
same  as  Hercules.  The  Acvins  were  the  two  pillars  of  light 
seen  in  the  canopy  at  night.  The  canopy — that  is,  the  north 
and  south  belts — caught  the  rays  of  the  sun  from  the  under- 
world, making  two  pillars.  These*  were  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules. They  were  the  <  Horsemen,'  twin  sons  of  Dyaus. 
Their  steeds,  the  whirling  belts,  were  ever  in  motion. 

The  Maruts,  whose  name  means  the  shining,  gleaming 
ones,  always  accompanied  the  storm  bringer,  Indra.  Their 
mother  was  the  variegated  cow,  Pricni,  the  mother  cloud.9 
These  warlike  Maruts  thus  spoke  to  Indra  bragging  what 
they  had  done : 

"  Thou  hast  indeed  done  great  things,  O  mighty  one, 
with  us  for  thy  helpers,  through  our  equal  valor.  But  we 
Maruts,  O  strong  Indra,  can  perform  many  great  deeds  by 
our  power  when  we  so  desire." 

Indra  retorts :  "  By  my  own  inborn  might,  O  Maruts, 
I  slew  Vritra.  Through  my  own  wrath  I  grew  so  strong.  It 
was  I  who,  wielding  the  lightning,  opened  the  way  for  the 
shining  waters  to  run  down  for  men."  10 


TRig  Veda  i,  32.2  and  v.  11. 

8  Hopkins,  "  The  Religions  of  India,"  chap,  xiv,  p.  357. 
°IUd.,  p.  97.      10Rig  Veda  i,  165.    Ragozin,  "  Vedic  India,"  p.  211. 
12 


178  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

The  Maruts  knuckled  and  admitted  that  Indra  had  "  no 
equal  among  the  gods."  Yet  they  too  were  immortal.  The 
whole  story  is  that  of  Hercules  and  the  many-headed  Hydra. 
One  of  these  heads  proved  immortal,  which  signifies  that 
the  storm  winds  cannot  be  subjugated  by  the-  sun ;  those  heads 
which  Hercules  killed  being  the  violent  personifications  of 
the  Ice  age. 

The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  have  a  story  entitled  i  The 
Legend  of  the  Children  of  Heaven  and  Earth/  It  was  taken 
down  by  Sir  George  Grey  many  years  ago,  and  though  it  is 
somewhat  lengthy,  it  will  bear  perusal  in  this  connection. 
We  would  have  the  reader  note  especially  the  character  of 
Tawhiri-ma-tea  (the  immortal  storm-head). 

"  Men  had  but  one  pair  of  primitive  ancestors ;  they 
sprang  from  the  vast  heaven  that  exists  above  us,  and  from 
the  earth  which  lies  beneath  us.  According  to  the  traditions 
of  our  race,  Rangi  and  Papa,  or  Heaven  and  Earth,  were 
the  source  from  which,  in  the  beginning,  all  things  origi- 
nated. Darkness  then  rested  upon  the  heaven  and  upon  the 
earth,  and  they  still  both  clave  together,  for  they  had  not 
yet  been  rent  apart ;  and  the  children  they  had  begotten  were 
ever  thinking  amongst  themselves  what  might  be  the  differ- 
ence between  darkness  and  light ;  they  knew  that  beings  had 
multiplied  and  increased,  and  yet  light  had  never  broken 
upon  them,  but  it  ever  continued  dark.  Hence  those  sayings 
are  found  in  our  ancient  religious  services :  (  There  was 
darkness  from  the  first  division  of  time  unto  the  tenth,  to 
the  hundredth,  to  the  thousandth,' — that  is,  for  a  vast  space 
of  time;  and  these  divisions  of  time  were  considered  as 
beings,  and  were  each  termed  a  Po. 

"  At  last  the  beings  who  had  been  begotten  by  Heaven 
and  the  Earth,  worn  out  by  the  continued  darkness,  consulted 
amongst  themselves,  saying,  Let  us  now  determine  what  we 
should  do  with  Rangi  and  Papa,  whether  it  would  be  better 
to  slay  them,  or  to  rend  them  apart.  Then  spoke  Tu-ma- 


HINDU  MYTHS  179 

tauenga,  the  fiercest  of  the  children  of  Heaven  and  Earth, 
'  It  is  well,  let  us  slay  them/ 

"  Then  spake  Tane-mahuta,  the  father  of  forests  and  of 
all  things  that  inhabit  them  or  that  are  constructed  from 
trees,  '  Nay,  not  so.  It  is  better  to  rend  them  apart,  and  to 
let  the  heaven  stand  far  above  us,  and  the  earth  lie  under 
our  feet.  Let  the  sky  become  as  a  stranger  to  us,  but  the 
earth  remain  close  to  us  as  our  nourishing  mother.'  The 
brothers  all  consented  to  this  proposal,  with  the  exception 
of  Tawhiri-ma-tea,  the  father  of  winds  and  storms,  and  he, 
fearing  that  his  kingdom  was  about  to  be  overthrown,  grieved 
greatly  at  the  thought  of  his  parents'  being  torn  apart.  Five 
of  the  brothers  willingly  consented  to  the  separation  of  their 
parents,  but  one  of  them  would  not  agree  to  it. 

"  The  brothers  all  tried,  in  vain.  The  god  and  father  of 
the  cultivated  food  of  man,  god  and  father  of  fish  and  rep- 
tiles, etc. — every  one  failed.  Then  at  last  slowly  uprises 
Tane-mahuta,  the  god  and  father  of  forests,  of  birds,  and  of 
insects,  and  he  struggles  with  his  parents ;  in  vain  he  strives 
to  rend  them  apart  with  his  hands  and  arms.  Lo,  he  pauses, 
his  head  is  now  firmly  planted  on  his  mother,  the  earth,  his 
feet  he  raises  up  and  rests  against  his  father,  the  skies;  he 
strains  his  back  and  limbs  with  mighty  effort.  Now  are 
rent  apart  Rangi  and  Papa,  and  with  cries  and  groans  of 
woe  they  shriek  aloud.  c  Wherefore  slay  you  thus  your 
parents?  Why  commit  you  so  dreadful  a  crime  as  to  slay 
us,  as  to  rend  your  parents  apart  ? '  But  Tane-mahuta  pauses 
not,  he  regards  not  their  shrieks  and  cries ;  far  beneath  him 
he  presses  down  the  earth,  far,  far  above  him  he  thrusts  up 
the  sky. 

"  Hence  these  sayings  of  olden  time :  '  It  was  the  fierce 
thrusting  of  Tane  which  tore  the  heaven  from  the  earth  so 
that  they  were  rent  apart,  and  darkness  was  made  manifest, 
and  so  was  light.' 

"  No  sooner  was  heaven  rent  from  the  earth  than  the  mul- 


180  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

titiide  of  human  beings  were  discovered  whom  they  had 
begotten,  and  who  had  hitherto  lain  concealed  between  the 
bodies  of  Rangi  and  Papa. 

"  The  legend  next  describes  how  Tawhiri-ma-tea,  god 
and  father  of  winds  and  storms,  arose  and  followed  his  father 
to  the  realms  above,  hurrying  to  the  sheltered  hollows  of  the 
boundless  skies,  to  hide  and  cling  and  nestle  there.  Fierce 
desire  came  to  him  to  wage  war  against  his  brethren  who  had 
done  such  unhandsome  deed  to  their  parents.  '  Then  came 
forth  his  progeny,  the  mighty  winds,  the  fierce  squalls,  the 
clouds,  dense,  dark,  fiery,  wildly  bursting ;  and  in  their  midst 
their  father  rushed  upon  his  foe.'  Tane-mahuta  and  his 
giant  forests  were  taken  unawares,  unsuspecting,  when  the 
raging  hurricane  burst  upon  them,  the  mighty  trees  were 
snapped  in  twain,  prostrated,  trunks  and  branches  left  torn 
upon  the  ground  for  insect  and  grub  to  prey  on.  The  sea  was 
swept  and  tossed  with  wild  surgings  and  mountain  waves 
till  Tangaroa,  god  of  the  ocean  and  father  of  all  that  dwell 
therein,  became  affrighted  and  fled.  His  children,  the 
parents  of  fish  on  the  one  hand  and  of  reptiles  on  the  other, 
fled,  the  one  into  the  depths  of  the  sea,  the  other  into  the 
recesses  of  the  shore,  amid  the  forests  and  the  scrubs. 

"  The  storm-god  attacked  his  brothers,  the  gods  and  pro- 
genitors of  the  tilled  food  and  the  wild,  but  Papa,  the  Earth, 
caught  them  up  and  hid  them,  and  he  searched  and  swept  to 
find  them,  in  vain.  He  fell  upon  the  last  of  his  brothers,  the 
father  of  fierce  men,  but  him  he  could  not  even  move.  Man 
stood  erect,  unshaken  upon  the  bosom  of  his  mother  earth. 
e  At  last  the  hearts  of  the  Heaven  and  the  Storm  became  tran- 
quil, and  their  passion  was  assuaged.' 

"  But  now  Tu-ma-tauenga,  father  of  fierce  men,  became 
stirred  to  attack.  He  was  minded  to  avenge  himself  upon 
his  brethren  who  had  left  him  unaided  to  stand  against  the 
god  of  storms.  He  twisted  nooses  of  the  leaves  of  the  whanake 
tree,  and  the  birds  and  beasts,  children  of  the  forest-god, 


HINDU  MYTHS  181 

fell  before  him;  netted  nets  of  the  flax  plant  and  dragged 
ashore  the  fish;  he  digged  in  the  ground  and  brought  up  the 
sweet  potato  and  all  cultivated  food,  the  fern  root  and  all 
wild  growing  food.  He  overcame  every  one  of  the  brothers, 
all  but  the  storm-god,  who  still  ever  attacks  him  in  tempest 
and  hurricane,  seeking  to  destroy  him  both  by  sea  and  by 
land.  It  was  in  one  of  these  attacks  that  the  dry  land  was 
made  to  disappear  beneath  the  waters. 

"  The  beings  of  ancient  days  who  thus  submerged  the 
land  were  Terrible-rain,  Long-continued-rain,  Fierce-hail- 
storms ;  and  their  progeny  were  Mist,  Heavy-dew,  and  Light- 
dew,  and  thus  but  little  of  the  dry  land  was  left  standing 
above  the  sea. 

"  From  that  time  clear  light  increased  upon  the  earth, 
and  all  the  beings  which  were  hidden  between  Rangi  and 
Papa  before  they  were  separated  now  multiplied  upon  the 
earth.  The  first  beings  begotten  by  Rangi  and  Papa  were 
not  like  human  beings;  but  Tu-ma-tauenga  bore  the  likeness 
of  a  man,  as  did  all  his  brothers. 

"  Up  to  this  time  the  vast  Heaven  has  still  ever  remained 
separate  from  his  spouse,  the  Earth.  Yet  their  mutual  love 
still  continues, — the  soft  warm  sighs  of  her  loving  bosom  still 
ever  rise  up  to  him,  ascending  from  the  woody  mountains  and 
valleys,  and  men  call  these  mists;  and  the  vast  Heaven,  as 
he  mourns  through  the  long  nights  his  separation  from  his 
beloved,  drops  frequent  tears  upon  her  bosom,  and  men,  see- 
ing these,  term  them  dew-drops."  11 

This  long  citation  shows  the  similarity  of  the  many- 
headed  storm-king  myth  throughout  the  world.  The  lifting 
of  the  canopy  was  invariably  followed  by  a  season  of  tem- 
pestuous violence.  But  let  us  return  to  the  Hindu  legends. 

The  Eig  Veda,  which  is  the  oldest  Hindu  authority,  is 
a  compiled  work,  containing  many  additions  of  a  later  day; 

u  Grey's  Polynesian  Mythology,  pp.  1-5,  14,  15,  as  quoted  by  Charles 
De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  269-274. 


182  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

thus  hymns  that  first  expressed  the  scenes  of  a  water  sky 
were  afterwards  in  part  rearranged  to  adapt  them  to  the 
changed  conditions.  But  this  will  become  clearer  to  us  as 
we  peruse  the  following  selections  taken  from  the  Second 
Series  of  Auld  Lang  Syne.  It  will  be  noted  that  these  mostly 
record  the  scenes  of  the  vapor-belt  and  canopy  period. 

HYMN  TO  SAVITRI  SUN.     (RIG- VEDA  i,  35,  2.) 

(6)  Three  skies  are  there  of  SavitH,  two  places, 

And  one  in  Yama's  realm  that  holds  our  heroes, 
Immortals   mounted  on  the   chariot's  axle, — 
Let  him  speak  out  who  understands  this  saying. 

(7)  The  glorious  bird   (the  sun)    has  lighted-up  the  heaven, 
The  guide  divine,  whose  wings  are  deeply  sounding  j 
Where  is  the  sun?     Who  knows  it  now,  to  tell  us, 
Which  of  the  heavens  his  ray  may  have  illumined? 

Naturally,  the  sun  was  first  addressed  when  seen  through 
the  vapor-sky,  where  in  the  imagination  he  appeared  as  a 
spirit  riding  in  a  golden  chariot,  drawn  by  brilliant  horses. 
The  next  step  noted  is  that  the  figurative  speech  remained 
after  the  canopy  and  vapor-belt  had  passed  away  and  the 
sun  was  seen  in  its  true  glory.  Thus  we  read,  Rig- Veda  i, 
27,  10 : 

The  stars  fixed  high  in  heaven  and  shining  brightly 
By  night,  0  say,  where  have  they  gone  by  day-time? 
The  laws  of  Varuwa  are  everlasting, 
The  moon  moves  on  by  night  in  brilliant  splendor. 

It  does  not  follow  from  this  that  because  the  stars  were 
seen  the  last  canopy  or  ring  had  dissipated.  This  evidence 
is  simply  to  be  classed  with  the  records  which  the  ancient 
Chinese,  Egyptians,  and  Chaldeans  kept  of  the  eclipses. 
These  records,  together  with  the  other  astronomical  data  of 
the  ancients,  merely  show  that  the  true  sky  was  seen  at  times. 
Yea,  even  if  we  are  forced  to  grant  that  the  skies  were  com- 
pletely cleared  from  all  belted-cloud  phenomena  at  the  time 
of  these  recorded  astronomical  events,  it  only  removes  the 
actual  appearances  of  the  cloud  phenomena  into  a  more 


HINDU  MYTHS  183 

remote  past.    Who  can  gainsay  such  evidence  as  is  found  in 
the  following  (hymn  X,  129)  : 

Nor  aught  nor  naught  existed:  yon  bright  sky 
Was  not,  nor  heaven's  broad  woof  outstretched  above; 
What  covered  all?  what  sheltered?  what  concealed? 
Was  it  the  waters'  fathomless  abyss? 

Again  we  quote  from  the  same  hymn: 

Darkness  there  was,  and  all  at  first  was  veiled 
In  gloom  profound,  an  ocean  without  light  j 
The  germ  that  still  lay  covered  in  the  husk 
Burst   forth,  one  nature,   from  the  fervent  heat. 

Here  is  another  selection  taken  from  the  Hymn,  To 
Katri,  Night. 

(1)  The  Night  comes  near  and  looks  about, 
The  goddess  with  her  many  eyes, 

She  has  put  on  her  glories  all. 

(2)  Immortal,  she  has  filled  the  space, 
Both  far  and  wide,  both  low  and  high, 
She  conquers  darkness  with  her  light. 

(3)  She  has  undone  her  sister,  Dawn, 

The  goddess  Night,  as  she  approached, 
And  utter  darkness  flies  away. 

Max  Miiller  says :  "  We  must  remember  that  the  night 
to  the  Yedic  poet  was  not  the  same  as  darkness,  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  when  the  night  had  driven  away  the  day,  she 
was  supposed  to  lighten  the  darkness,  and  even  to  rival  her 
sister,  the  bright  day,  with  her  starlight  beauty.  The  night, 
no  doubt,  gives  peace  and  rest,  yet  the  Dawn  is  looked  upon 
as  the  kindlier  light,  and  is  implored  to  free  mortals  from 
the  dangers  of  the  night,  as  debtors  are  freed  from  a  debt. 
Many  conjectural  alterations  have  been  proposed  in  this 
hymn,  but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  intelligible  as  it  stands."  12 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  additional  light  shed  by  the 


""Auld  Lang  Syne/'  Second  Series,  p.  255. 


184  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

present  hypothesis,  this  hymn  becomes  still  more  intelli- 
gible. At  night  the  sunlight  from  below  illuminated  the 
canopy ;  in  the  words  of  the  hymn,  "  She  conquered  darkness 
with  her  light."  In  connection  with  the  lesson  of  the  pyra- 
mids, this  hymn  becomes  clearer,  and  the  midnight  hour  of 
the  "  shade  "  and  of  "  Death  "  is  indeed  a  revelation. 

(8)      Like  cows,  I  brought  this  hymn  to  thee, 
As  to  a  conqueror,  child  of  Dyaus. 
Accept  it  graciously,  O  Night! 

The  "  cows  "  mentioned  in  the  text  refers  without  ques- 
tion to  the  clouds,  and  brings  at  once  to  our  attention  all 
the  solar  bulls  of  mythology.  Sarama  had  cloud-cattle  stolen 
by  the  Pani-robbers.  Sarama  went  after  them,  and  the  fol- 
lowing conversation  took  place: 

"  The  Panis:  '  With  what  intention  did  Sarama  reach 
this  pla.ce?  for  the  way  is  far  and  leads  tortuously  away. 
What  is  thy  wish  with  us  ?  Didst  travel  safely  ?  (or,  '  how 
was  the  night?')  How  didst  thou  cross  the  waters  of  the 
Easa  ? ' 

ff  Sarama :  '  I  came  sent  as  the  messenger  of  Indra, 
desiring,  O  Panis,  your  great  treasures.  This  preserved  me 
from  the  fear  of  crossing,  and  thus  I  crossed  the  waters  of 
the  Rasa.' 

"  The  Panis:  e  Who  is  he  ?  what  looks  he  like,  this  Indra, 
whose  herald  you  have  hastened  from  afar?  Let  him  come 
here,  we  will  make  friends  with  him,  then  he  may  be  the 
herdsman  of  our  cows.' 

"Sarama:  (  Ye  cannot  injure  him,  but  he  can  injure, 
whose  herald  I  have  hastened  from  afar.  Deep  rivers  cannot 
overwhelm  him ;  you,  Panis,  soon  shall  be  cut  down  by  Indra.' 

ff  The  Panis:  '  Those  cows,  O  Sarama,  which  thou  cam'st 
to  seek,  are  flying  round  the  ends  of  the  sky.  O  darling,  who 
would  give  up  to  thee  without  a  fight?  for,  in  truth,  our 
weapons  too  are  sharp.'  "  13 

18  Rig- Veda  x,  108.    Eagozin,  "Vedic  India,"  p.  257. 


HINDU  MYTHS  185 

We  have  already  sketched  some  of  the  attributes  of  Indra, 
the  conquering  sun.  He  was  also  a  cow  or  cloud  disperser. 
He  slew  the  awful  "  demon-cloud  " ;  also  Yal  or  Vritra,  him 
of  speed,  the  great  snake,  the  great  restrainer.  He,  men, 
was  Indra,  the  cloud  compeller. 

"  He  who  fixed  firm  the  moving  earth ;  who  tranquillized 
the  incensed  mountains ;  who  spread  the  spacious  firmament ; 
who  consolidated  the  heavens:  he,  men,  is  Indra. 

"  He  who,  having  destroyed  Ahi,  set  free  the  seven 
rivers;  who  recovered  the  cows  retained  by  Bal;  who  gen- 
erated fire  in  the  clouds ;  who  is  invincible  in  battle ;  he,  men, 
is  Indra."  14 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  England's  patron,  Saint 
George,  is  borrowed  from  this  scene.  The  battle  of  Indra 
and  Ahi  is  analogous  and  equivalent  to  that  between  Saint 
George  and  the  Dragon.  Other  prototypes  are  Hercules  and 
the  Hydra,  Perseus  and  the  sea-monster,  Sigurd  and  Eafnir, 
Beowulf  and  Grendel.  "  All  this  is  descriptive  of  the  deliv- 
erance of  the  earth,"  says  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  from  the 
fangs  of  a  monster,  either  the  storm-cloud — in  the  case  of 
Herakles  the  throttling  serpents  of  night — or  the  icy  prison 
of  cold,  of  winter."  Nay,  but  we  know  that  it  is  all  summed 
up  in  one  monster — the  overhanging  snake-belt  under  the 
canopy. 

Mr.  Mills  goes  on  to  say :  "  What  causes  surprise  is  the 
universality  of  this  speech.  It  is  everywhere,  certainly 
wherever  any  of  the  Aryan  race  are  found.  Nay,  there  are 
traces  of  the  same  essential  story  in  the  literatures  of  the 
Phoenicians,  Egyptians,  and  Babylonians.  In  Saint  George 
we  have  the  myth  Christianized,  touched  afresh  with  new 
colors,  and  the  hero  thus  presented  has  become  one  of  the 
most  venerated  and  popular  of  all  the  saints  in  the  calendar. 
The  patron  saint  of  England  now  since  early  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  he  has  been  also  that  of  Aragon  and  Portugal,  and 

"Murray's  Manual  of  Mythology,  20th  ed.,  p.  372. 


186  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  order  of  the  knights  of  Saint  George  has  been  widely 
instituted.  In  the  time  of  the  crusades  he  appeared  once  in 
light  on  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  waving  his  sword,  and  led 
the  victorious  assault  on  the  Holy  City.  Is  it  not  wonder- 
ful that  he  has  been  so  long  and  gratefully  remembered  ?  "  15 
Sky-scenes  were  essentially  ephemeral,  thus  all  through 
Vedic  literature  the  changing  of  names  and  of  the  meanings 
of  words  is  in  evidence,  and  so  just  as  we  have  seen  the 
English  saint,  originally  a  sun-god,  become  a  being  leading 
armies  of  men  to  victory,  so  also  the  Hindus,  like  all  the 
other  peoples  of  their  day  (and  of  the  days  that  have  since 
passed),  endeavored  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times.  Deva 
Surya,  '  shining  one/  is  an  illustration  of  this  truth.  Surya 
means  the  red  ball  of  the  sun ;  afterwards  he  became  Savitar, 
'  enlivener.'  He  proved  to  be  the  burner  death.16  This 
burning  one  was  the  racing  canopy.  Max  Miiller  says  of  it: 
"  One  of  the  most  intelligible  names  given  to  the  sun 
was  Asva,  the  racer,  or  Dadhikravan  or  V&gm  (horse). 
And  while  at  one  time  the  sun  was  a  racer,  at  another  the 
sun  was  conceived  as  approaching  men  and  standing  on  a 
chariot  which  was  drawn  by  horses,  as  in  Greek  mythology. 
Thus  we  read,  Kig-Veda  i,  35,  2 :  '  The  god  Savit™  (the 
sun),  approaching  on  the  dark-blue  sky,  sustaining  mortals 
and  immortals,  comes  on  his  golden  chariot,  beholding  all 
the  worlds.'  "  17 

Hopkins  gives  the  hymn  as  follows: 

Through  space  of  darkness  wending  comes  he  hither, 

Who  puts  to  rest  th'  immortal  and  the  mortal, 

On  golden  car  existent  things  beholding, 

The  god  that  rouses,  Savitar,  the  shining; 

Comes  he,  the  shining  one,  comes  forward,  upward, 

Comes  with  two  yellow  steeds,  the  god  revered, 

Comes  shining  Savitar  from  out  the  distance, 

All  difficulties  far  away  compelling. 

His   pearl-adorned,   high,  variegated  chariot, 

""The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  76-77.       16  Rig- Veda,  liv,  2. 
""Auld  Lang  Syne,"  Second  Series,  p.  194. 


HINDU  MYTHS  187 

Of  which  the  pole  is  golden,  he,  reverSd, 
Hath  mounted,  Savitar,  whose  beams  are  brilliant, 
Against  the   darksome  spaces   strength  assuming. 
Among  the  people  gaze  the  brown  white-footed 
(Steeds)    that  the  chariot  drag  whose  pole  is  golden. 
All  peoples  stand,  and  all  things  made,  forever, 
Within  the  lap  of  Savitar,  the  heavenly. 

(There  are  three  heavens  of  Savitar,  two  low  ones, 
One,  men-restraining,  in  the  realm  of  Yama. 
As  on    (his)    chariot-pole  stand  all  immortals, 
Let  him  declare  it  who  has  understood  it ! ) 

Across  air-spaces  gazes  he,  the  eagle, 
Who  moves  in  secret,  th'  Asura,  well-guiding, 
Where  is    (bright)    Surya  now?  who  understands  it? 
And  through  which  sky  is  now  his  ray  extending  ? 18 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  Acvins  were 
the  two  halves  of  the  divided  canopy.  They  were  like  two 
great  mountains,  the  one  to  the  north,  the  other  in  the  south. 
Warren  says  of  them: 

"  A  striking  parallel  to  the  Egyptian  and  Akkadian  idea 
of  two  opposed  polar  mountains,  an  arctic  and  an  antarctic — 
the  one  celestial  and  the  other  infernal — is  found  among  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  India.  The  celestial  mountain  they 
called  Su-Meru,  the  infernal  one  Ku-Meru.  In  the  Hindu 
Puranas  the  size  and  splendors  of  the  former  are  presented 
in  the  wildest  exaggerations  of  Oriental  fancy.  Its  height, 
according  to  some  accounts,  is  not  less  than  eight  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  miles,  its  diameter  at  the  summit  three 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand.  Four  enormous  buttress 
mountains,  situated  at  mutually  opposite  points  of  the  hori- 
zon, surround  it.  One  account  makes  the  eastern  side  of 
Meru  of  the  color  of  the  ruby,  its  southern  that  of  the  lotus, 
its  western  that  of  gold,  its  northern  that  of  coral.  On  its 
summit  is  the  vast  city  of  Brahma,  fourteen  thousand  leagues 
in  extent.  Around  it,  in  the  cardinal  points  and  the  inter- 
18 "Religions  of  India,"  p.  49,  Rig- Veda  i,  35. 


188  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

mediate  quarters,  are  situated  the  magnificent  cities  of  Indra 
and  the  other  regents  of  >he  spheres.  The  city  of  Brahma,  in 
the  centre  of  the  eight,  is  surrounded  by  a  moat  of  sweet 
flowing  celestial  waters,  a  kind  of  river  of  the  water  of 
life  (Ganga),  which,  after  encircling  the  city,  divides  into 
four  mighty  rivers  flowing  towards  four  opposite  points  of 
the  horizon,  and  descending  into  the  equatorial  ocean  which 
engirdles  the  earth. 

"  Sometimes  Mount  Meru  is  represented  as  planted  so 
firmly  and  deeply  in  the  globe  that  the  antarctic  or  infernal 
mountain  is  only  a  projection  of  its  lower  end.  Thus  the 
Surya  Siddhanta  says :  f  A  collection  of  manifold  jewels,  a 
mountain  of  gold,  is  Meru,  passing  through  the  middle  of 
the  earth-globe  (bhugola),  and  protruding  on  either  side. 
At  its  upper  end  are  stationed  along  with  Indra  the  gods  and 
the  great  sages  (maJiarishis) ;  at  its  lower  end,  in  like 
manner,  the  demons  have  their  abode — each  (class)  the  enemy 
of  the  other.  Surrounding  it  on  every  side  is  fixed,  next, 
this  great  ocean,  like  a  girdle  about  the  earth,  separating  the 
two  hemispheres  of  the  gods  and  of  the  demons."  19 

The  four  mighty  rivers  above  referred  to  as  flowing  down- 
wards towards  the  four  opposite  points  of  the  horizon  were 
four  snakes.  At  an  early  date  in  the  mythology  of  the 
Hindus  the  great  snakes  and  the  little  snakes  are  said  to  have 
taken  sides.  Divine  snakes  grouped  with  other  celestial 
powers  disputed  for  victory  over  earthly  combatants.  This  is 
a  record  of  the  fact  that  as  time  wore  on  the  cult  which 
owed  its  origin  to  the  original  sky-scenes  was  becoming  con- 
taminated. The  scenes  that  gave  birth  to  the  myths  had 
passed  away  and  the  people  were  prone  to  forget.  In  a 
footnote  on  these  times  Hopkins  says: 

"  The  snakes  belong  to  Yaruna  and  his  region,  as  de- 
scribed in  v.  98.  It  is  on  the  head  of  the  earth-upholding 
snake  Cesha  that  Vishnu  muses,  iii,  203,  12.  The  reverence 

""Paradise  Found,"  pp.  129-130. 


HINDU  MYTHS  189 

paid  to  serpents  begins  to  be  ritual  in  the  Atharva  Veda. 
Even  in  the  Kig  Veda  there  is  the  deification  of  the  cloud- 
snake.  In  later  times  they  answered  to  the  Nymphs,  being 
tutelary  guardians  of  streams  and  rivers  (Buhler).  In  i,  36, 
Cesha  Ananta  supports  earth,  and  it  is  told  why  he  does 


so. 


99  20 


Vishnu  means  "  knowledge."  Avatar  means  "  Descent 
from  somewheres  to  this  earth."  The  gods  descended  when 
the  canopy  fell  and  brought  knowledge  to  men. 

The  duration  of  the  time  of  the  gods'  own  lives  and  of 
the  divine  heavens,  unlike  the  Greeks'  notion  of  the  four  ages 
which  include  all  time,  in  India  embraces  only  a  fraction  of 
time. 

"  Starting  at  any  one  point  of  eternity,  there  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  Hindu  belief,"  says  Hopkins,  "  a  preliminary 
'  dawn '  of  a  new  cycle  of  ages.  This  dawn  lasts  four  hun- 
dred years,  and  is  then  followed  by  the  real  age  (the  first  of ' 
four),  which  last  four  thousand  years,  and  has  again  a  twi- 
light ending  of  four  hundred  years  in  addition.  This  first 
is  the  Krita  age,  corresponding  to  the  classical  Golden  Age. 
Its  characteristics  are  that  in  it  everything  is  perfect ;  right 
eternal  now  exists  in  full  power."  21 

These  ages  are  a  long-drawn-out  affair.  "No  doubt  the 
epoch-making  events  of  canopy  decline  through  which  primi- 
tive man  passed  moulded  his  thoughts  in  this  direction  and 
gave  birth  to  the  idea  of  dividing  time  up  into  ages.  In 
Hindu  expression,  this  cycle  of  the  ages  always  repeats  itself 
anew. 

The  four  horses  of  Eevelations  (ch.  vi)  are  another  in- 
stance of  the  fourfold  division  of  early  time.  In  all  parts 
of  the  world  the  same  divisions  seem  to  have  been  observed, 
and  the  inference  is  that  there  actually  was  something  in 
canopy  time  which  caused  these  ages  to  be  noted. 

20 "The  Religions  of  India,"  chap,  xiv,  p.  376. 
81  "Religions  of  India,"  ch.  xv,  p.  419. 


190  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  The  '  Popul  Vuh,'  the  national  book  of  the  Quiches, 
tells  us  of  four  ages  of  the  world.  The  man  of  the  first  age 
was  made  of  clay ;  he  was  i  strengthless,  inept,  watery ;  he 
could  not  move  his  head,  his  face  looked  but  one  way;  his 
sight  was  restricted,  he  could  not  look  behind  him '  (that  is, 
he  had  no  knowledge  of  the  past)  ;  '  he  had  been  endowed 
with  language,  but  he  had  no  intelligence,  so  he  was  con- 
sumed in  the  water.' 

"  Then  followed  a  higher  race  of  men ;  they  filled  the 
world  with  their  progeny ;  they  had  intelligence  but  no  moral 
sense;  '  they  forgot  the  Heart  of  Heaven.'  They  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire  and  pitch  from  heaven,  accompanied  by  tre- 
mendous earthquakes,  from  which  only  a  few  escaped. 

"  Then  followed  a  period  when  all  was  dark,  save  the 
white  light  as  yet  of  the  primeval  world. 

"  Once  more  are  the  gods  in  council,  in  the  darkness,  in 
the  night  of  a  desolated  universe. 

"  Then  the  people  prayed  to  God  for  light,  evidently  for 
the  return  of  the  sun. 

"'Hail!  O  Creator!'  they  cried.  'O  Former!  Thou 
that  hearest  and  understandest  us !  abandon  us  not !  forsake 
us  not !  O  God,  thou  art  in  heaven  and  on  earth ;  O  Heart  of 
Heaven !  O  Heart  of  Earth !  give  us  descendants,  and  a  pos- 
terity as  long  as  the  light  endure.' 

"  It  was  thus  they  spake,  living  tranquilly,  invoking  the 
return  of  the  light ;  waiting  the  rising  of  the  sun ;  watching 
the  star  of  the  morning,  precursor  of  the  sun.  But  no  sun 
came,  and  the  four  men  and  their  descendants  grew  uneasy. 
*  We  have  no  person  to  watch  over  us,'  they  said ;  '  nothing 
to  guard  our  symbols ! '  Then  they  adopted  gods  of  their 
own,  and  waited.  They  kindled  fires,  for  the  climate  was 
colder;  then  there  fell  great  rains  and  hail-storms,  and  put 
out  their  fires.  Several  times  they  made  fires,  and  several 
times  the  rains  and  storms  extinguished  them.  Many  other 
trials  also  they  underwent  in  Tulan,  famines  and  such  things, 


HINDU  MYTHS  191 

and  a  general  dampness  and  cold — for  the  earth  was  moist, 
there  being  no  sun.  *  *  * 

"Many  generations  seem  to  have  grown  up  and  perished 
under  the  sunless  skies,  '  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  light ' ; 
for  the  '  Popul  Vuh '  tells  us  that  l  here  also  the  language 
of  all  the  families  was  confused,  so  that  no  one  of  the  first 
.four  men  could  any  longer  understand  the  speech  of  the 
others.'  *  *  * 

"  This  shows  that  many,  many  years — it  may  he  cen- 
turies— must  have  elapsed  before  that  vast  volume  of  mois- 
ture, carried  up  by  evaporation,  was  able  to  fall  back  in 
snow  and  rain  to  the  land  and  sea,  and  allow  the  sun  to 
shine  through  '  the  blanket  of  the  dark/  Starvation  encoun- 
tered the  scattered  fragments  of  mankind. 

"  And  in  these  same  Quiche  legends  of  Central  America 
we  are  told :  '  The  persons  of  the  godhead  were  enveloped 
in  the  darkness  which  enshrouded  a  desolated  world/  "  22 

"  The  Aztecs,"  says  Prescott,  "  felt  the  curiosity,  common 
to  man  in  almost  every  stage  of  civilization,  to  lift  the  veil 
which  covers  the  mysterious  past  and  the  more  awful  future. 
They  sought  relief,  like  the  nations  of  the  Old  Continent, 
from  the  oppressive  idea  of  eternity,  by  breaking  it  up  into 
distinct  cycles,  or  periods  of  time,  each  of  several  thousand 
years'  duration.  There  were  four  of  these  cycles,  and  at 
the  end  of  each,  by  the  agency  of  one  of  the  elements,  the 
human  family  was  swept  from  the  earth,  and  the  sun  blotted 
out  from  the  heavens,  to  be  again  rekindled."  23 

Quetzalcoatl  was  the  god  of  the  air,  the  good  canopy. 
"  Under  him,"  says  Prescott,  "  the  earth  teemed  with  fruits 
and  flowers,  without  the  pains  of  culture.  An  ear  of  Indian 
corn  was  as  much  as  a  single  man  could  carry.  The  cotton, 
as  it  grew,  took,  of  its  own  accord,  the  rich  dyes  of  human 

22 Bancroft's  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  46,  as  quoted  by  Donnelly 
in  "  Ragnarok,"  pp.  216-218. 

23 "History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico,"  vol.  i,  ch.  iii,  p.  64. 


192  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

art.  The  air  was  filled  with  intoxicating  perfumes  and  the 
sweet  melody  of  birds.  In  short,  these  were  the  halcyon  days, 
which  find  a  place  in  the  mythic  systems  of  so  many  nations 
in  the  Old  World.  It  was  the  golden  ag&  of  Anahuac."  24 

"  The  reader  has  already  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
Aztec  system  of  four  great  cycles,"  says  the  famous  historian, 
"  at  the  end  of  each  of  which  the  world  was  destroyed,  to  be . 
again  regenerated.  The  belief  in  these  periodical  convulsions 
of  nature,  through  the  agency  of  some  one  or  other  of  the  ele- 
ments, was  familiar  to  many  countries  in  the  Eastern  hemi- 
sphere; and,  though  varying  in  detail,  the  general  resem- 
blance of  outline  furnishes  an  argument  in  favor  of  a  common 
origin. 

"  No  tradition  has  been  more  widely  spread  among 
nations  than  that  of  a  Deluge.  Independently  of  tradition, 
indeed,  it  would  seem  to  be  naturally  suggested  by  the  inte- 
rior structure  of  the  earth,  and  by  the  elevated  places  on 
which  marine  substances  are  found  to  be  deposited.  It  was 
the  received  notion,  under  some  form  or  other,  of  the  most 
civilized  people  in  the  Old  World,  and  of  the  barbarians  of 
the  New.  The  Aztecs  combined  with  this  some  particular 
circumstances  of  a  more  arbitrary  character,  resembling  the 
accounts  of  the  East.  They  believed  that  two  persons  sur- 
vived the  Deluge — a  man,  named  Coxcox,  and  his  wife. 
Their  heads  are  represented  in  ancient  paintings,  together 
with  a  boat  floating  on  the  waters,  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain. 
A  dove  is  also  depicted,  with  the  hieroglyphical  emblem  of 
languages  in  his  mouth,  which  he  is  distributing  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Coxcox,  who  were  born  dumb.  The  neighboring 
people  of  Michoacan,  inhabiting  the  same  high  plains  of 
the  Andes,  had  a  still  further  tradition,  that  the  boat  in 
which  Tezpi,  their  Noah,  escaped,  was  filled  with  various 
kinds  of  animals  and  birds.  After  some  time,  a  vulture  was 
sent  out  from  it,  but  remained  feeding  on  the  dead  bodies  of 
"Ibid.,  p.  61. 


HINDU  MYTHS  193 

the  giants,  which  had  been  left  on  the  earth,  as  the  waters 
subsided.  The  little  humming-bird,  huitzitzilin,  was  then 
sent  forth,  and  returned  with  a  twig  in  its  mouth.  The  coin- 
cidence of  both  these  accounts  with  the  Hebrew  and  Chaldean 
narratives  is  obvious.  It  were  to  be  wished  that  the  authority 
for  the  Michoacan  version  were  more  satisfactory."  25 

This  account  of  the  Deluge,  though  evidently  grafted 
from  the  Old  World,  brings  us  back  to  our  Hindu  legends. 
Manu  was  the  Hindu  Noah.  The  human  race,  according 
to  this  legend,  was  preserved  through  a  compact  which  was 
made  between  him  and  the  god,  Vishnu,  who  was  incarnate 
in  many  strange  forms  and  things,  each  one  of  which  was 
an  avatar.  The  account  of  the  famous  flood  avatar  is  as 
follows : 

"  In  the  morning  they  brought  water  to  Manu  to  wash 
with,  even  as  they  bring  it  to-day  to  wash  hands  with.  While 
he  was  washing  a  fish  came  into  his  hands.  The  fish  said, 
'  Keep  me,  and  I  will  save  thee.'  f  What  wilt  thou  save  me 
from  ? '  '  A  flood  will  sweep  away  all  creatures  on  earth. 
I  will  save  thee  from  that/  '  How  am  I  to  keep  thee  ? ' 
'  As  long  as  we  are  small/  said  he  (the  fish),  e  we  are  sub- 
ject to  much  destruction ;  fish  eats  fish.  Thou  shalt  keep  me 
first  in  a  jar.  When  I  outgrow  that,  thou  shalt  dig  a  hole, 
and  keep  me  in  it.  When  I  outgrow  that,  thou  shalt  take 
me  down  to  the  sea,  for  there  I  shall  be  beyond  destruction.' 

"  It  soon  became  a  (great  horned  fish  called  a)  jhasha, 
for  this  grows  the  largest,  and  then  it  said :  '  The  flood  will 
come  this  summer  (or  in  such  a  year).  Look  out  for  (or 
worship)  me,  and  build  a  ship.  When  the  flood  rises,  enter 
into  the  ship,  and  I  will  save  thee.'  After  he  had  kept  it  he 
took  it  down  to  the  sea.  And  the  same  summer  (year)  as  the 
fish  had  told  him  he  looked  out  for  (or  worshiped)  the  fish ; 
and  built  a  ship.  And  when  the  flood  rose  he  entered  into 
the  ship.  Then  up  swam  the  fish,  and  Manu  tied  the  ship's 

*Ilnd.f  vol.  iii,  appendix,  part  i,  pp.  362-364. 
13 


194  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

rope  to  the  horn  of  the  fish;  and  thus  he  sailed  swiftly  up 
toward  the  mountain  of  the  north.  '  I  have  saved  thee,'  said 
he  (the  fish).  '  Fasten  the  ship  to  a  tree.  But  let  not  the 
water  leave  thee  stranded  while  thou  art  on  the  mountain 
(top).  Descend  slowly  as  the  water  goes  down.'  So  he 
descended  slowly,  and  that  descent  of  the  mountain  of  the 
north  is  called  the  (  Descent  of  Manu.'  The  flood  then  swept 
off  all  the  creatures  of  the  earth,  and  Manu  here  remained 
alone."  26 

This  avatar  speaks  plainly  of  the  descent  of  both  gods  and 
water  to  this  earth.  Vishnu  is  said  to  have  lain  on  a  bed  of 
snakes,  so  the  unknown  source,  the  somewheres  of  the  myth, 
is  clearly  the  vapor-belt  on  high.  First  Yishnu  took  the  form 
of  a  fish.  In  a  later  avatar  he  became  a  strong  tortoise, 
upholding  the  sky-rim-disk. 

Another  avatar  is  thus  described  by  Maurice :  "  By  the 
power  of  God  there  issued  from  the  essence  of  Brahma  a 
being  shaped  like  a  boar,  white  and  exceeding  small;  this 
being,  in  the  space  of  an  hour,  grew  to  the  size  of  an  elephant 
of  the  largest  size,  and  remained  in  the  air. 

"  Brahma  was  astonished  on  beholding  this  figure,  and 
discovered,  by  the  force  of  internal  penetration,  that  it  could 
be  nothing  but  the  power  of  the  Omnipotent  which  had 
assumed  a  body  and  become  visible.  He  now  felt  that  God 
is  all  in  all,  and  all  is  from  him,  and  all  in  him;  and  said 
to  Mareechee  and  his  sons  (the  attendant  genii)  :  '  A  won- 
derful animal  has  emanated  from  my  essence ;  at  first  of  the 
smallest  size,  it  has  in  one  hour  increased  to  this  enormous 
bulk,  and,  without  doubt,  it  is  a  portion  of  the  almighty 
power.' 

"  They  were  engaged  in  this  conversation  when  that 
vara,  or  ( boar-form/  suddenly  uttered  a  sound  like  the  loud- 
est thunder,  and  the  echo  reverberated  and  shook  all  the 
quarters  of  the  universe. 

26 Hopkins,  "The  Religions  of  India,"  ch.  ix,  pp.  214-215. 


HINDU  MYTHS  195 

"  But  still,  under  this  dreadful  awe  of  heaven,  a  certain 
wonderful  divine  confidence  secretly  animated  the  hearts  of 
Brahma,  Mareechee,  and  the  other  genii,  who  immediately 
began  praises  and  thanksgiving.  That  vara  (boar-form) 
figure,  hearing  the  power  of  the  Yedas  and  Mantras  from 
their  mouths,  again  made  a  loud  noise,  and  became  a  dread- 
ful spectacle.  Shaking  the  full  flowing  mane  which  hung 
down  his  neck  on  both  sides,  and  erecting  the  humid  hairs 
of  his  body,  he  proudly  displayed  his  two  most  exceedingly 
white  tusks ;  then,  rolling  about  his  wine-colored  (red)  eyes 
and  erecting  his  tail,  he  descended  from  the  region  of  the 
air,  and  plunged  headforemost  into  the  water.  The  whole 
body  of  water  was  convulsed  by  the  motion,  and  began  to  rise 
in  waves,  while  the  guardian  spirit  of  the  sea,  being  terrified, 
began  to  tremble  for  his  domain  and  cry  for  mercy."  27 

The  avatars  that  follow  are  nothing  but  husks  built  up 
to  sustain  the  priestly  cult.  But  we  must  not  omit  mention- 
ing Vasuka,  the  King  of  Serpents,  who  was  made  into  a  rope 
to  twirl  the  churn  of  heaven.  It  is  said  that  he  churned  the 
foaming  waters  of  the  sea  until  the  milky  waves  arose,  lashed 
to  whiteness,  and  in  the  midst  of  these  mighty  convulsions  he 
caused  the  storm  to  bring  the  things  of  beauty  out  from  the 
heaving  bosom  of  the  deep  to  their  birth. 

27 "Ancient  History  of  Hindustan,"  vol.  i,  p.  304. 


CHAPTER  XV 

BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS 

THE  fourth  avatar  of  Vishnu,  as  we  have  just  seen  in 
our  last  chapter,  was  that  of  the  great  mountain,  "  Mandara 
the  lofty,"  which  acted  as  a  churning  stick  to  stir  the  foam- 
ing waters  of  the  vapor-belt,  the  King  snake  being  used  as 
a  rope  to  twirl  the  stick  around.  Now,  the  cloud-mountain 
always  was  the  home  of  the  gods.  The  Greeks  had  their 
Olympia,  the  North  American  Indians  had  their  sky-moun- 
tain, and  the  Mohammedan  mythology  records  the  fact  that 
Mount  Caf,  which  encircled  the  earth,  was  the  home  of 
giants.  It  was  said  to  rest  upon  the  sacred  emerald-colored 
stone,  sakhral,  whose  reflected  light  was  the  cause  of  the  tints 
of  the  sky.  The  Scandinavian  myths  also  mention  the  moun- 
tain giants,  and  the  Egyptians  had  their  pyramids.  That 
the  Babylonian  gods  lived  above  or  on  top  of  the  world- 
mountain  therefore  seems  quite  natural.  "  The  mountain  of 
the  world  is  also  called  '  the  mountain  of  the  nether  world ' 
(shad  Aralu)  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions."  The  gods, 
Ea,  Sin,  Shamash,  Nebo,  Adad,  Ninib,  and  their  sublime 
consorts,  were  all  born  in  a  house  situated  on  top  of  this 
mountain.1 

In  some  form  or  other,  nearly  all  the  peoples  of  antiquity 
have  left  a  record  of  this  sky-mountain  phenomena,  but  per- 
haps the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  have  excelled  them  all. 
Their  zikkurats,  or  staged  towers,  were  imitations  of  this 
mountain,2  and  they  were  the  temples  of  their  gods.  "  The 

1 "  Explorations    in   Bible    Lands   During   the    Nineteenth    Century," 
pp.  464-465. 

2  "To  produce  the  mountain  effect,  a  mound  of  earth  was  piled  up, 
and  on  this  mound  a  terrace  was  formed  that  served  as  the  foundation 
plane  for  the  temple  proper,  but  it  was  perfectly  natural  also  that 
196 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  197 

temple  in  so  far  as  it  was  erected  to  serve  as  a  habitation  for 
the  god/'  says  Jastrow,  "  was  to  be  the  reproduction  of  the 
cosmic  E-Kur — '  a  mountain  house '  on  a  small  scale,  a 
miniature  Kharsag-kurkura."  *  *  *  "In  Assyria  we 
find  one  of  the  oldest  temples  bearing  the  name  E-kharsag- 
kurkura,  that  stamps  the  edifice  as  the  reproduction  of  the 
'  mountain  of  all  lands.'  "  3 

Some  of  the  mountain  titles  of  these  deities  and  their 
temples  were  as  follows :  The  name  (  zikkurat'  itself  means 
'  mountain  peak.'  Bel's  temple  at  Mppur  was  '  E-Kur,' 
the  mountain  house  of  Bel.  Belit,  his  consort,  was  called 
'  Nin-Khar-Sag,'  or  the  '  lady  of  the  great  high  mountain.' 
Bel  was  often  addressed  as  if  he  himself  were  the  mountain : 
( the  great  mountain,'  '  the  lofty  Bel,'  '  the  mighty  Bel.' 
Originally  he  was  the  mountain  mass  in  the  sky.  His  deifi- 
cation did  not  rob  him  of  his  name. 

In  Ur  was  '  the  house  of  the  great  mountain,'  '  the  glo- 
rious mountain  house,'  '  the  lofty  house,'  '  the  heavenly 
house,'  'the  link  of  heaven  and  earth,'  '  the  summit  house.' 

In  Asshur  there  was  '  the  house  of  all  the  lands  '  or  '  the 
house  of  mountains,'  '  the  house  of  the  mountain  of  countries.' 

At  Babylon  '  the  great  house '  was  an  abode  of  the  same 
nature.  Here  the  mountain-god  was  called  Marduk,  from 
Maru  ('the  sun')  Duk  (u)  ('the  glorious  chamber')4:  the 
glorious  chamber  of  the  hidden  sun.  The  gods  lived  in 
chambers.  Jastrow  says: 

"  As  the  zikkurat  represented  the  mountain  on  which  the 
gods  were  born  and  where  they  were  once  supposed  to  dwell, 
so  the  sacred  room  was  regarded  as  the  reproduction  of  a 

instead  of  making  the  edifice  consist  of  one  story,  a  second  was  super- 
imposed on  the  first,  so  as  to  heighten  the  resemblance  to  a  mountain. 
The  outcome  of  this  ideal  was  the  so-called  staged  tower,  known  as 
the  zikkurat.  The  name  signifies  simply  a  '  high '  edifice,  and  embodies 
the  same  idea  that  led  the  Canaanites  and  Hebrews  to  call  their  tem- 
ples '  high  places/  Jastrow,  "  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  ch. 
xxvi,  p.  615.  *IUd.,  pp.  614,  615.  *IUd.,  ch.  viii,  p.  116. 


198  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

portion  of  the  great  mountain  where  the  gods  assembled  in 
solemn  council.  This  council  chamber  was  situated  at  the 
eastern  end  of  the  great  mountain,  and  was  known  as 
Du-azagga,  that  is,  '  brilliant  chamber.'  The  chamber  itself 
constituted  the  innermost  recess  of  the  eastern  limit  of  the 
mountain,  and  the  special  part  of  the  mountain  in  which  it 
lay  was  known  as  Ubshu-kenna,  written  with  the  ideographic 
equivalents  to  '  assembly  room.'  "  5 

Bel  of  Nippur  became  associated  with  Marduk  of  Baby- 
lon. The  union  of  the  governments  of  the  two  cities  blended 
the  one  god  into  the  other  until  finally  they  became  united  as 
one  deity.  Both  were  solar  characters.  Probably  they  rep- 
resented the  same  aspect  of  abstract  nature,  and  since  their 
affinities  were  the  same  their  union  was  the  logical  result 
when  the  peoples  of  the  two  cities  came  to  realize  that  they 
were  worshiping  the  same  nature-being.  In  both  places  they 
were  worshiping  the  same  god-like  mountain.6 

The  union  of  Bel-Mar duk  is  only  one  instance  of  an 
innumerable  host  of  similar  occurrences.  Take  the  leviathan 
which  we  read  about  in  Job.  He  is  the  crooked  serpent 
(Job  xxvi:  13;  Ps.  xxxiii:  6-7;  Isa.  xxvii:  1).  The  swift 
Acvin  or  northern  canopy  of  the  Hindus,  etc.,  etc.  And  yet 
how  quickly  he  becomes  associated  with  our  present  scene. 
It  is  written  of  him :  "  He  beholdeth  all  high  things ;  he  is 
a  king  over  all  the  children  of  pride."  Chaldaic:  "of  all 
the  sons  of  the  mountains  "  (Job  xli:  34) » 


6  Ibid.,  ch.  xxvi,  p.  629. 

6  Marduk  was  the  bright  glowing,  shining  canopy-mountain.  He 
was  not  the  sun  itself;  only  the  shiner  which  was  lit  by  reflection,  even 
at  night.  Those  who  believe  that  his  temple,  E-Sagili,  was  a  sun- 
temple  will  have  some  difficulty  to  explain  the  night  prayers  that 
formed  a  part  of  his  worship.  Sayce  (Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  101)  says: 
"  Two  hours  after  nightfall  the  priest  must  come  and  take  of  the  waters 
of  the  river;  must  enter  into  the  presence  of  Bil,  and,  putting  on  a 
stole  in  the  presence  of  Bil,  must  say  this  prayer,  etc." 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  199 

Ishtar  was  originally  a  good  canopy.  Personified,  she 
was  known  as  *  the  mother/  for  the  reason  that  she  seemed 
to  give  birth  to  all,  the  sky  phenomena.7  She  was  also  known 
as  the  '  brilliant  goddess/  and  as  '  the  mistress  of  the  moun- 
tains.' Afterwards  she  became  violent,  and  the  verdant  earth 
under  her  greenhouse  roof  trembled.  Thus  she  lost  her  good 
character,  and  the  Assyrians,  seeing  her  transformation, 
henceforth  considered  her  the  goddess  of  battle  and  war. 
Her  character  is  like  that  of  the  good  cherub  of  Ezekiel 
(chap,  xxviii),  who  afterwards  became  a  menace  and  terror. 
Of  this  canopy  it  is  written  that  he  was  set  like  Ishtar  on  the 
holy  mountain.  The  passage  reads  as  follows : 

"  Thou  art  the  anointed  cherub  that  covereth ;  and  I 
have  set  thee  so :  thou  wast  upon  the  holy  mountain  of  God ; 
thou  hast  walked  up  and  down  in  the  midst  of  the  stones 
of  fire. 

"  Thou  wast  perfect  in  thy  ways  from  the  day  that  thou 
wast  created,  till  iniquity  was  found  in  thee. 

"  By  the  multitude  of  thy  merchandise  they  have  filled 
the  midst  of  thee  with  violence,  and  thou  hast  sinned :  there- 
fore I  will  cast  thee  as  profane  out  of  the  mountain  of  God : 
and  I  will  destroy  thee,  O  covering  cherub,  from  the  midst  of 
the  stones  of  fire  "  (vs.  14—16). 

In  the  cosmology  of  the  Chaldeans  the  mountain  of  the 
canopy  is  very  prominent.  They  imagined  that  the  earth 
was  shaped  like  an  inverted  round  boat  or  bowl.  A.  H.  Sayce 
is  authority  for  the  following: 

"  Heaven  itself  had  not  always  been  e  the  land  of  the 
silver  sky '  of  later  Assyrian  belief.  The  Babylonians  once 
believed  that  the  gods  inhabited  the  snow-clad  peak  of 
Eowandiz,  'the  mountain  of  the  world '  and  '  the  mountain 
of  the  East/  as  it  was  also  termed,  which  supported  the 

7 "The   mother"  was  a   common  appellation  given  to  the  canopy 
in  all  ancient  systems  of  religion. 


200  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

starry  vault  of  heaven.  It  is  to  this  old  Babylonian  belief 
that  allusion  is  made  in  Isaiah  xiv:  13,  14,  where  the  Baby- 
lonian monarch  is  represented  as  saying, in  his  heart:  'I 
will  ascend  into  heaven,  I  will  sit  also  on  the  mount  of  the 
assembly  (of  the  gods)  in  the  extremities  of  the  north:  I 
will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the  clouds.'  "  8 

"  Above  the  convex  surface  of  the  earth,"  Eagozin  says, 
"spread  the  sky  (ana),  itself  divided  into  two  regions:  the 
highest  heaven  or  firmament,  which,  with  the  fixed  stars 
immovably  attached  to  it,  revolved,  as  round  an  axis  or  pivot, 
around  an  immensely  high  mountain,  which  joined  it  to  the 
earth  as  a  pillar.  *  *  * 

"  Between  the  lower  heaven  and  the  surface  of  the  earth 
is  the  atmospheric  region,  the  realm  of  Im  or  Mermer,  the 
Wind,  where  he  drives  the  clouds,  rouses  the  storms,  and 
whence  he  pours  down  the  rain,  which  is  stored  in  the  great 
reservoir  of  Ana,  in  the  heavenly  Ocean.  As  to  the  earthly 
Ocean,  it  is  fancied  as  a  broad  river,  or  watery  rim,  flowing 
all  round  the  edge  of  the  imaginary  inverted  bowl;  in  its 
waters  dwells  Ea  (whose  name  means  '  the  House  of 
Waters  '),  the  great  Spirit  of  the  Earth  and  Waters  (Ziki-a), 
either  in  the  form  of  a  fish,  whence  he  is  frequently  called 
'  Ea  the  fish/  or  f  the  Exalted  Fish,'  or  on  a  magnificent 
ship,  with  which  he  travels  round  the  earth,  guarding  and 
protecting  it."  9 

The  people  of  those  early  days  naturally  speculated  on 
the  question  as  to  what  held  the  hollow  hemisphere  of  the 
stretched-out  heaven  in  place.  It  appeared  to  them  as  a 
solid  dome  or  covering.  The  Assyriologist  of  the  British 
Museum,  L.  W.  King,  gives  us  some  account  of  their  ideas 
on  this  subject.  He  tells  us  that  they  thought  that  "  both 
earth  and  heaven  rested  upon  a  great  body  of  water  called 
Apsu,  i.e.,  the  Deep."  Again,  some  say: 

8 "By-Paths  of  Bible  Knowledge,"  vii;  "Assyria,"  ch.  iii,  p.  77. 
9 "The  Story  of  Chaldea,"  pp.   153,  154. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  201 

"  It  is  not  quite  certain  how  the  solid  dome  of  heaven 
was  supported;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  not  clear  whether  it  was 
supported  by  the  earth  or  was  held  up,  independently  of  the 
earth,  by  the  waters.  According  to  one  view,  the  edge  of  the 
earth  was  turned  up  and  formed  around  it  a  solid  wall,  like 
a  steep  range  of  hills,  upon  which  the  dome  of  heaven  rested ; 
and  in  the  hollow  between  the  mountain  of  the  earth  and 
this  outer  wall  of  hills  the  sea  collected  in  the  form  of  a 
narrow  stream.10  This  conception  coincides  with  some  of 
the  phases  in  the  Legend  of  Etana,  but  against  it  may  be 
urged  the  fact  that  the  sea  is  frequently  identified  with 
Apsu,  or  the  primeval  Deep  upon  which  the  earth  rested. 
But  if  the  edges  of  the  earth  supported  the  dome  of  heaven, 
all  communication  between  the  sea  and  Apsu  would  be  cut 
off.  It  is  more  probable,  therefore,  that  the  earth  did  not 
support  the  heavens,  and  that  the  foundations  of  the  heavens, 
like  those  of  the  earth,  rested  on  Apsu."  This  confusion 


10  The  original  stream  of  the  Eden  World  is  here  portrayed.  It  is 
written:  "A  river  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden;  and  from 
thence  it  was  parted,  and  became  into  four  heads.  The  name  of  the 
first  is  Pison:  that  is  it  which  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Havilah, 
where  there  is  gold ;  and  the  gold  of  that  land  is  good :  there  is  bdellium 
and  the  onyx  stone.  And  the  name  of  the  second  river  is  Gihon:  the 
same  is  it  that  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Ethiopia.  And  the  name 
of  the  third  river  is  Hiddekel:  that  is  it  which  goeth  toward  the  east 
of  Assyria.  And  the  fourth  river  is  Euphrates."  (Gen.  ii:  10-14.) 
William  F.  Warren  says: 

"Finally,  pursuing  these  curious  investigations  further,  our  plain 
reader  finds  mention  in  Pausanias,  ii,  5,  of  a  strange  belief  of  the 
ancients,  according  to  which  the  Euphrates,  after  disappearing  in  a 
marsh  and  flowing  a  long  distance  underground,  rises  again  beyond 
Ethiopia,  and  flows  through  Egypt  as  the  Nile.  This  reminds  him  of 
the  language  of  Josephus,  according  to  which  the  Ganges,  the  Tigris, 
the  Euphrates,  and  the  Nile  are  all  but  parts  of  'one  river  which  ran 
round  about  the  whole  earth' — the  Okeanos-river  of  the  Greeks.  And 
he  wonders  whether  the  old  Shemitic  term  from  which  the  modern 
Euphrates  is  derived  was  not  originally  a  name  of  that  Ocean-river 
which  Aristotle  describes  as  rising  in  the  upper  heavens,  descending 
in  rain  upon  the  earth,  feeding,  as  Homer  tells  us,  all  fountains  and 


202  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

arises  from  the  fact  that  the  Chaldeans  themselves  did  not 
understand  the  workings  of  the  laws  which  upheld  the  dome. 
They  therefore  felt  certain  that  it  must  rest  on  some  founda- 
tion, for  they  saw  'it  descending,  as  it  were,  both  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left,  both  to  the  East  and  to  the  West. 

Our  author  describes  the  origin  of  the  dome  as  follows: 
"  According  to  a  version  of  the  creation  story,  the  god  Bel 
or  Marduk  formed  the  heavens  and  the  earth  out  of  the  body 
of  a  great  female  monster  that  dwelt  in  the  Deep  which  he 
had  slain.  Splitting  her  body  into  two  halves,  he  fashioned 
from  one  half  the  dome  of  heaven,  and  from  the  other  the 
earth."  " 

Above  the  dome  of  heaven,  according  to  the  ancient  belief, 
was  another  mass  of  water,  supported  by  the  lower  dome 
which  kept  it  from  breaking  through  and  drowning  the  earth. 
The  interpretation  of  this  is  that  the  dome  of  heaven  was  a 
canopy  in  its  last  stages,  hence  so  thin  that  the  sun,  moon, 


rivers  and  every  sea,  flowing  through  all  these  water-courses  down 
into  the  great  and  'broad'  equatorial  ocean-current  which  girdles  the 
world  in  its  embrace,  thence  branching  out  from  the  further  shore  into 
the  rivers  of  the  Underworld,  to  be  at  last  fire-purged  and  sublimated, 
and  returned  in  purity  to  the  upper  heavens  to  recommence  its  round. 
And  just  as  he  is  wondering  over  the  question,  he  finds  that  some  of 
the  Assyriologists,  in  their  investigation  of  pre-Babylonian  Akkadian 
mythology,  have  found  reason  to  believe  this  surmise  correct,  and  to 
say  that  in  that  mythology  the  term  Euphrates  was  applied  to  *  the 
rope  of  the  world,'  'the  encircling  river  of  the  snake  god  of  the  tree 
of  life,'  '  the  heavenly  river  which  surrounds  the  earth.'  Furthermore, 
as  he  turns  back  to  the  pages  of  Hyginus,  and  Manilius,  and  Lucius 
Ampelius,  and  reads  of  the  fall  of  the  '  world-egg '  at  the  beginning 
'  into  the  river  Euphrates,'  he  perceives  that  he  is  in  a  mythologic,  and 
not  a  historic,  region.  And  when  he  lights  upon  a  mutilated  fragment 
of  an  ancient  Assyrian  inscription,  in  which  descriptions  of  the  visible 
and  invisible1  world  are  mixed  up  together,  and  in  which  the  river  'of 
the  life  of  the  world '  is  designated  by  the  name  '  Euphrates,'  he 
quickly  concludes  that  it  will  not  do  to  take  the  term  Phrath,  or 
Eu-frata,  as  always  and  everywhere  referring  to  the  historic  river  of 
Mesopotamia."  ("Paradise  Found,"  pp.  30,  31.) 

""Babylonian  Religion  and  Mythology,"  vol.  iv,  pp.  28,  30,  31. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  203 

and  stars  were  seen  as  gods  drifting  through  its  substance 
in  halos  or  boats.  Herodotus  says,  the  boats  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians  were  circular,  like  a  shield,  and  no 
distinction  was  made  between  the  head  and  the  stern.12  In 
this  way  the  mythological  idea  of  the  gods  journeying  in  boats 
had  its  beginning.  From  the  parent  conception  it  was  only 
a  step  to  introduce  the  boat-procession  into  the  various 
priestly  cults  as  practised  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere.13  There 
is  splendid  poetry  in  the  following  hymn :  "  O  Sun !  thou 
hast  stepped  forth  from  the  background  of  heaven,  thou  hast 
pushed  back  the  bolts  of  the  brilliant  heaven, — yea,  the  gate 
of  heaven.  O  Sun !  above  the  land  thou  hast  raised  thy  head ! 
O  Sun !  thou  hast  covered  the  immeasurable  space  of  heaven 
and  countries !  "  14 

But  besides  seeing  the  daily  procession  of  the  gods,  headed 
by  the  Sun,  stepping  out  from  behind  the  Mountain  of  the 
Sunrise  and  drifting  in  his  boat  towards  the  Mountain  of 
the  Sunset,  these  Babylonians  also  saw  the  true  canopy  soar- 
ing above  the  vapor  dome.  This  they  naturally  supposed  was 
supported  by  the  lower  cloud  belt  or  mountain. 

12  Bk.  i,  ch.  194. 

13  "A  sacred  object  in  the  construction  of  which  much  care  was 
taken  was  the  ship  in  which  the  deity  was  carried  in  solemn  procession. 
It  is  again  in  the  inscriptions  of  Gudea  that  we  come  across  the  first 
mention  of  this  ship.     This  ruler  tells  us  that  he  built  the  'beloved 
ship '  for  Nin-girsu,  and  gave  it  the  name  Kar-mma-ta-uddua,  the  ship 
of  '  the  one  that  rises  up  out  of  the  dam  of  the  deep.'     The  ship  of 
Nabu  is  of  considerable  size,  and  is  fitted  out  with  a  captain  and  crew, 
has  masts  and  compartments.     The  ship  resembled  a  moon's  crescent, 
not  differing  much,   therefore,  from  the   ordinary  fiat-bottomed   Baby- 
lonian boat  with  upturned  edges.     Through  Nebuchadnezzar  we  learn 
that  these  ships  were  brilliantly  studded  with  precious   stones,   their 
compartments  handsomely  fitted  out,  and  that  in  them  the  gods  were 
carried  in  solemn  procession  on  the  festivals  celebrated  in  their  honor. 
A  long  list  of  such  ships  shows  that  it  was  a  symbol  that  belonged  to 
all  the  great  gods.     The  ships  of  Nin-lil,  Ea,  Marduk,  Sin,  Shamash, 
Nabu,   Ninib,  Bau,  Nin-gal,   and  of  others  are  especially  mentioned." 
Jastrow,  "  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  ch.  xxvi,  pp.  653-655. 

14Ragozin,  "Story  of  Chaldea,"  ch.  iii,  p.  172. 


204  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Ornoroka  was  the  name  of  the  woman  which  Bel  cleft  in 
twain,  from  one  half  of  which  he  made  the  dome  of  heaven, 
and  from  the  other  half  the  earth.  In  Chaldee  her  name  is 
Thamte,  i.e..,  tamtu,  the  Babylonian  for  i  sea  '  or  '  ocean/ 
which  in  the  Greek  is  Thalassa.15  This  Tiamat  or  sea, 
according  to  the  myth,  took  the  form  of  a  huge  serpent,  she 
and  Apsu,  her  consort,  revolted  against  the  gods,  that  is 
against  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  by  creating  a  brood  of 
monsters  which  destroyed  them.  In  other  words,  the  serpent- 
belt  became  a  sun-obscuring,  star-devouring  pall,  a  spreading 
canopy. 

According  to  the  beautiful  Babylonian  poem,  the  creation- 
epic,  written  upon  seven  tablets,  this  scene  is  depicted  as  fol- 
lows :  "  At  the  very  beginning  of  all  things,  a  dark,  chaotic, 
primeval  water,  called  Tiamat,  existed  in  a  state  of  agitation 
and  tumult.  But  as  soon  as  the  gods  made  preparations  for 
the  formation  of  an  ordered  universe,  Tiamat,  generally 
represented  as  a  dragon,  but  also  as  a  seven-headed  serpent, 
arose  in  bitter  enmity,  gave  birth  to  monsters  filled  with 
venom — and  with  these  as  her  allies,  prepared,  roaring  and 
snorting,  to  do  battle  with  the  gods.  All  the  gods  tremble 
with  fear  when  they  perceive  their  terrible  adversary;  only 
the  god  Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  *  *  *  volunteered  to 
do  battle.  *  *  *  A  splendid  scene  follows.  The  god 
Marduk  fastens  a  mighty  net  to  the  east  and  south,  north  and 
west,  in  order  that  nothing  of  Tiamat  may  escape;  then, 
clad  in  the  gleaming  armor,  and  in  majestic  splendor,  he 
mounts  his  chariot  drawn  by  four  fiery  steeds  (a  reference 
to  the  four  halos  or  mock  suns  which  accompanied  the  true 
sun  on  his  diurnal  journey  over  the  canopy),  the  gods  around 
gazing  with  admiration.  Straight  he  drives  to  meet  the 
dragon  and  her  army.  *  *  *  Then  her  ground  quaked 


15  The  Hebrew  and  Babylonian  cosmogonies  both  present  to  us  in 
the  beginning  a  watery  chaos.  The  Hebrew  word  tehom,  translated 
'the  deep'  (Gen.  i:2),  corresponds  with  the  Babylonian  Tiamat. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  205 

asunder  from  the  bottom.  She  opened  her  jaws  to  their 
utmost,  but  before  she  could  close  her  lips  the  god  Marduk 
bade  the  evil  wind  enter  within  her.  *  *  *  Then 
Marduk  clave  Tiamat  clean  asunder  like  a  fish;  out  of  the 
one  half  he  formed  heaven,  out  of  the  other,  earth,  at  the 
same  time  dividing  the  upper  waters  from  the  lower  by  means 
of  the  firmament.  He  decked  the  heavens  with  moon,  sun, 
and  stars  (which  implies  that  they  were  not  seen  before), 
the  earth  with  plants  and  animals."  16 

She  created  a  brood  of  uncouth  beings,  the  same  as  we 
find  in  the  giant  myths  of  the  Greeks  and  Scandinavians. 
The  Babylonian  version  reads: 

They  have  joined  their  forces  and  are  making  war, 

Ummu-Khubur    (i.e.,  Tiamat),  who  formed  all  things, 

Has  made  in  addition  weapons  invincible,  she  has  spawned  monster- 
serpents, 

Sharp  of  tooth  and  cruel  of  fang; 

With  poison  instead  of  blood  she  has  filled  their  bodies. 

Fierce   monster-vipers   she   has   clothed  with  terror, 

With  splendor  she  has  decked  them,  and  she  has  caused  them  to 
mount  on  high. 

Whoever  beholds  them  is  overcome  by  dread. 

Their  bodies  rear  up  and  none  can  withstand  their  attack. 

She  has  set  up  the  viper,  and  the  dragon,  and  the  monster  Lakkamu." 

Attention  is  called  to  the  second  line  quoted;  there,  it 
will  be  noted,  Tiamat  is  said  to  have  created  all  things,  hence 
this  revolt  against  the  gods  was  against  her  own  offspring, 
which  fact  is  sustained  by  various  other  Babylonian  texts 
as  well  as  by  the  myths  of  other  lands.  The  interpretation 
is  clear.  When  the  first  canopy  known  by  tradition  to  the 
Babylonians  became  thin  it  gave  birth  to  the  gods ;  in  other 
words,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  were  seen  through  it.  Then, 
as  time  went  on,  Marduk,  i.e.,  Bel,  the  solar  deity,  split  up 


16  Translated  by  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  "  Babel  and  the  Bible,"  pp.  47-49. 

"From  the  Tablets  of  the  Creation  epic;  see  Jastrow,  "Religion  of 
Babylon  and  Assyria,"  ch.  xxi,  p.  409  ff.,  and  L.  W.  King,  "Babylon 
Religion  and  Mythology,"  vol.  iv,  p.  63  ff. 


206  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

another  canopy  which  had  formed  and  which  was  called  the 
body  of  his  mother.  Out  of  half  of  her  body  he  formed  the 
dome  of  heaven  and  the  waters  which  were  seen  above  it, 
and  out  of  the  other  half  he  formed  the  earth.  Tiamat  then 
created  other  serpents  from  the  sky-water  or  canopy  above 
the  firmament,  a  fearful  brood  of  sun-obscuring,  star-devour- 
ing, venomous  serpents,  annular  forms,  and  lowering 
canopies. 

The  majority  of  scholars  say  that  Marduk  divided  Tiamat 
in  half  and  from  one  half  formed  the  earth.  From  the  stand- 
point of  the  present  hypothesis,  this  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  appearance  of  things,  for  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, when  the  sun,  Marduk,  conquered  the  water-sky,  half 
of  it  did  seem  to  be  cast  upon  the  earth.  Certain  other 
scholars,  however,  say  that  the  word,  E-shara,  translated 
earth,  is  incorrectly  interpreted,  and  if  this  be  true  our 
hypothesis  gains  even  more  prestige,  for  the  word  they  would 
substitute  for  earth  means  '  heaven.'  L.  W.  King  would  have 
us  "  consider  E-shara  to  be  a  name  for  heaven,  or  for  a  part  of 
it,"  and  he  further  adds  in  support  of  this  assertion  that 
"  the  last  two  lines  of  the  Fourth  Tablet  of  the  poem  certainly 
favor  this  view.  The  most  natural  meaning  of  the  passage 
is  that  Marduk  made  the  mansion  of  E-shara  to  be  heaven, 
which  he  then  divided  between  the  three  gods  Anu,  Bel, 
and  Ea." 

That  we  may  have  a  better  understanding  of  the  argu- 
ment we  quote  from  the  last  twelve  lines  of  the  Fourth  Tablet 
of  the  Creation  Epic.  It  reads  thus : 

Then  the  lord  rested,  and  gazed  on  her  dead  body. 

He  divided  the  flesh  of  the  body,  having  devised  a  cunning  plan. 

He  split  her  up  like  a  flat  fish  into  two  halves. 

One  half  of  her  he  set  in  place  as  a  covering  for  the  heavens. 

He  fixed  a  bolt,  he  stationed  watchmen, 

And  bade  them  not  to  let  her  waters  come  forth. 

He  passed  through  the  heavens,  he  surveyed  the  regions   (thereof), 

Over  against  the  Deep  he  set  the  dwelling  of  Nudimmud. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  207 

And  the  lord  measured  the  structure  of  the  Deep, 

And  he  founded  E-shara,  a  mansion  like  unto  it. 

The  mansion  E-shara,  which  he  created  as  heaven, 

He  caused  Ami,  Bel,  and  Ea  in  their  districts  to  inhabit."  M 

Our  interpretation  is  that  Marduk,  i.e.,  Bel,  conquered 
Tiamat,  the  serpent-belt  or  ring;  that  is,  she  was  not  a 
canopy  in  its  last  stages,  but  she  was  a  serpent.  Now,  a 
serpent  had  to  progress  through  the  various  stages  of  decline 
before  it  could  be  dissipated.  Marduk  divided  the  serpent- 
ring  into  two  parts,  the  one  resting  towards  the  north  and 
the  other  towards  the  south.  This  divided  the  heavens  into 
three  sections,  one  for  each  of  the  three  gods,  Bel  giving  to 
Anu  the  middle  alley  in  the  equatorial  sky,  where  he  had 
split  the  serpent  in  twain,  and  where  of  course  the  clear-sky 
could  be  seen.  Anu  was  the  god  of  the  clear  open  sky. 
Naturally,  in  time  the  two  halves,  drifting  towards  the  north 
and  towards  the  south,  became  canopies.  Bel  dwelt  in  the 
northernmost  one  himself,  and  through  it  he  could  be  seen 
crossing  daily  in  his  halo-boat.  Hence  we  read  that  he  caused 
these  gods  "  their  districts  to  inhabit." 

It  is  an  interesting  probability  that  these  tablets  were 
not  a  new  composition  when  written.  They  were  found  in 
Ashur-bani-pal's  library  and  date  from  the  seventh  century 
before  Christ.  But  this  does  not  indicate  their  age,  for 
Ashur-bani-pal  was  very  fond  of  literature,  and  he  collected 
his  material  from  all  over  the  country ;  therefore  it  is  almost 
certain  that  these  tablets  were  copied  from  older  sources. 

Another  tablet,  found  in  the  same  library,  gives  quite  a 
variation  in  the  portrayal  of  the  combat.  Were  the  legend 
a  brand-new  literary  effort  of  the  seventh  century  B.  C.  we 
should  not  expect  to  find  such  variations  in  the  same  library. 
It  takes  time  to  produce  variant  forms,  especially  when  the 
matter  is  set  forth  in  writing.  All  this  goes  to  show  that 
this  mythological  evidence  may  date  from  a  very  remote 

""Babylonian  Religion  and  Mythology,"  pp.  77,  78. 


208  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

period.  It  is  well  to  keep  this  fact  ever  in  mind,  for  as  we 
go  on  to  consider  the  evidence  from  other  and  newer  lands, 
we  must  remember  that  the  people  themselves  never  saw  their 
own  gods.  Greece,  for  instance,  retained,  and  in  a  measure 
beautified,  the  legends,  but  that  is  all  they  were  to  her.  The 
natural  phenomena  had  slipped  so  far  away  in  the  remote 
past  that  all  that  was  left  was  legend. 

This  literary  mist  which  has  grown  up  and  spread  over 
and  beautified  the  stern  reality  of  nature  is  the  soul  of  poetry. 
The  Lord  asks  Job: 

"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
earth?  tell  it,  if  thou  hast  any  understanding  (of  it). 

"  Who  fixed  her  measurements,  if  thou  knowest  it  or  who 
stretched  the  measuring-line  over  her  ? 

"  Upon  what  are  her  foundation-pillars  placed  at  rest  ? 
or  who  laid  her  corner-stone? 

"  When  altogether  sang  the  morning  stars  in  gladness, 
and  shouted  for  joy  all  the  sons  of  God  ?  "  19 

But  in  considering  the  question  of  time  we  are  likely  also 
to  err  in  the  other  direction;  we  are  likely  to  assign  these 
myths  to  a  dust-mirky  age  entirely  too  far  back.  Knowledge 
of  celestial  phenomena  on  the  part  of  the  ancients  does  not 
always  mean  that  the  belted  canopy  phenomena  had  entirely 
disappeared.  For  instance,  there  can  be  no  question  but 
that  the  Babylonians  were  great  astronomers.  On  a  tablet 
found  in  the  Temple  Library,  Nippur,  astronomical  calcula- 
tions of  the  most  minute  character  as  to  the  constellation 
Scorpion  show  how  proficient  were  the  astronomers  of 
2300  B.  C.  But  such  evidence  must  not  be  understood  to 
indicate  that  the  annular  system  was  a  thing  of  the  past  in 
that  age.  It  only  indicates  that  the  heavens  were  clear  from 
canopies,  and  that  the  rings,  if  such  were  then  in  the  sky, 
were  probably  seen  edgewise,  and  so  took  up  little  space  in 


Isaac  Lesser s  Version,  Job  xxxviii:4-7. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  209 

the  equatorial  heavens,  being  altogether  an  unconspicuous 
feature.20 

Professor  H.  V.  Hilprecht's  discoveries  show  amongst 
other  things  that  these  Babylonians  were  aware  that  the  earth 
was  round.  They  had  the  rings  to  guide  them  to  the  dis- 
covery of  this  truth,  and  the  fact  that  the  peoples  which  lived 
after  them  lost  this  knowledge  shows  us  that  the  rings  which 
acted  as  interpreters  of  nature  must  have  passed  into  the 
canopy  stage  or  have  been  dissipated  altogether.  With  their 
disappearance  the  gods  are  said  to  have  fled  to  the  celestial 
heavens,  where  they  ultimately  became  identified  with  the 
planets.  Marduk  is  thus  associated  with  Jupiter,  Ishtar 
with  Venus,  RTergal  with  Mars,  Nabu  with  Mercury,  and 
Mnib  with  Saturn.21  The  very  act  of  thus  connecting  them 

20  The  record  of  eclipses  forms  a  very  considerable  portion  of  the 
astronomical  data  of  the  ancients.  "  Among  the  Chinese  they  were 
long  calculated,  and,  in  fact,  it  is  thought  by  some  that  they  have 
pretended  to  a  greater  antiquity  by  calculating  backwards,  and  record- 
ing as  observed  eclipses  those  which  happened  before  they  understood 
or  noticed  them.  It  seems,  however,  authenticated  that  they  did  in 
the  year  2169  B.C.  observe  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  and  that  at  that  date 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  predicting  them.  For  this  particular  eclipse 
is  said  to  have  cost  several  of  the  astronomers  their  lives,  as  they  had 
not  calculated  it  rightly.  As  the  lives  of  princes  were  supposed  to 
be  dependent  on  these  eclipses,  it  became  high  treason  to  expose  them 
to  such  a  danger  without  forewarning  them.  They  paid  more  attention 
to  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  than  of  the  moon. 

"Among  the  Babylonians  the  eclipses  of  the  moon  were  observed 
from  a  very  early  date,  and  numerous  records  of  them  are  contained  in 
the  Observations  of  Bel  in  Sargon's  library,  the  tablets  of  which  have 
lately  been  discovered.  In  the  older  portion  they  only  record  that  on 
the  14th  day  of  such  and  such  a  (lunar)  month  an  eclipse  takes  place, 
and  state  in  what  watch  it  begins,  and  when  it  ends.  In  a  later 
portion  the  observations  were  more  precise,  and  the  descriptions  of  the 
eclipse  more  accurate.  Long  before  1700  B.C.  the  discovery  of  the  lunar 
cycle  of  223  lunar  months  had  been  made,  and  by  means  of  it  they 
were  able  to  state  of  each  lunar  eclipse  that  it  was  either  '  according  to 
calculation '  or  '  contrary  to  calculation/  "  Flammarion,  "  Astronomical 
Myths,"  ch.  xii,  pp.  337-338. 

'"Jastrow,  "The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  pp.  370,  371, 
459. 

14 


210  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

with  the  star-roofed  heavens  points  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
originally  sky-scenes.  It  would  have  violated  the  religious 
feelings  of  the  people  too  much  to  restrict  them  to  an  earthly 
home,  and  yet  their  old  cloud-mountain  home  had  passed 
away,  so  where  else  in  the  whole  universe  could  the  priests 
say  they  had  gone  ?  In  connection  with  the  old  cloud-moun- 
tain, the  second  month  of  the  Babylonian  year  was  desig- 
nated as  the  month  of  the  resplendent  mound.22 

The  origin  of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  was  due  to  the  same 
causes  which  led  the  Chaldean  mind  to  assign  planets  to  the 
gods,  in  which  they  might  make  their  home  after  the  moun- 
tain canopy  had  dissolved.  "  Eleven  constellations,  that  is 
to  say,  the  entire  zodiac  with  the  exception  of  the  bull — the 
sign  of  Marduk — were  identified  with  the-  eleven  monsters 
forming  the  host  of  Tiamat."  23  The  fantastic  shape  of  the 
animals  chosen  for  this  purpose  bears  unmistakable  evidence 
of  their  origin  as  vapor  forms. 

But  to  return  to  the  earlier  days.  It  was  Bel,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  caused  the  gods,  Anu,  Bel,  and  Ea,  their  districts 
to  inhabit, 

A  tablet  of  the  '  Creation  Epic,'  so  far  as  decipherable, 
reads : 

There  was  a  time  when  above  the  heaven  was  not  named. 

Below  the  earth  bore  no  name. 

Apsu  was  there  from  the  first  the  source  of  both, 

And  raging  Tiamat,  the  mother  of  both. 

But  their  waters  were  gathered  together  in  a  mass. 

No  field  was  marked  off,  no  soil  seen. 

When  none  of  the  gods  was  as  yet  produced, 

No  name  mentioned,  no  fate  determined, 

Then  were  created  the  gods  in  their  totality. 

Lakhmu  and  Lakhamu  were  created. 

Days  went  by.24 


22  IUd.,  p.  464.       ^Ibid.,  p.  456. 

"Delitzsch   supplies   a  parallel  phrase  which   in  the  light  of  our 
hypothesis  makes  the  reading  clearer.     It  is :     '  periods  elapsed/ 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  211 

Anshar  and  Kishar  were  created. 
Many  days  elapsed  *  *  * 
Ann  (Bel  and  Ea  were  created). 
Anshar,  Anu    (?)***     25 

The  portion  of  the  heavens  given  to  Ea  was  Apsu,  the 
deep.  Ea  means  '  the  House  of  waters/  He  was  an  '  Exalted 
Fish.7  This  is  parallel  to  that  avatar  of  Vishnu  where  he 
assumed  the  form  of  a  great  fish  protecting  Manu  from  the 
flood.  (The  canopy  was  a  protector,  bringing  greenhouse 
conditions  into  the  world.)  Ea  fought  against  Tiamat,  the 
dragon,  serpent  snake,  and  with  Marduk's  and  Anu's  help 
conquered  the  dark  one.  Ea  thus  figures  as  the  great  hero  of 
the  flood,  which  parallels  the  account  of  the  Noachian  deluge, 
but  as  this  incident  is  described  in  the  eleventh  tablet  of  the 
Gilgamesh  epic,  it  will  be  best  to  defer  its  consideration  until 
after  we  have  become  acquainted  with  some  of  the  records 
from  the  first  tablets. 

This  epic  of  Gilgamesh  is  known  to  many  by  the  name 
of  '  Izdubar.'  "  Gisdhubar,"  says  Sayce,  "  himself  was  a 
solar  hero."  *  *  *  "  His  twelve  labors  or  adventures 
answer  to  the  twelve  months  of  the  year  through  which  the 
sun  moves,  like  the  twelve  labors  of  the  Greek  Herakles."  26 

E"ow,  in  the  sixth  tablet,  to  secure  the  love  of  Gilgamesh, 
the  solar  orb,  the  exalted  Ishtar,  the  one-time  good  canopy, 
'  brilliant  goddess/  and  '  mother  of  the  gods,'  raises  her  eyes. 
She  offers  him  her  love,  her  home,  her  all.  She  offers  him 
the  products  of  the  mountain  and  the  land,  for  she,  the 
goddess  of  fertility,  produced  wonderful  agricultural  fruits 
under  her  protecting  roof.  She  offers  him  full  control  of 
her  herds  and  cow-like  clouds.  She  offers  him  a  chariot  of 
lapis  lazuli  and  gold,  with  wheels  and  horns  of  sapphire, 
drawn  by  great  steeds — the  swift  horse  being  an  emblem  of 
the  flying  ring  or  vapor-belt  driven  by  centrifugal  force. 

™IUd.,  eh.  xxi,  p.  410. 

26  "By-Paths  of  Bible  Knowledge,"  vii.     "Assyria,"  p.  110. 


212  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Gilgamesh  spurns  all  this  and  upbraids  her  for  her  treatment 
of  her  youthful  loves. 

Tammuz,  the  consort  of  thy  youth  (  ?), 

Thou  causest  to  weep  every  year. 

The  bright-colored  allallu  bird  thou  didst  love. 

Thou  didst  crush  him  and  break  his  pinions. 

In  the  woods  he  stands  and  laments,  "  0  my  pinions !  " 

Thou  didst  love  a  lion  of  perfect  strength; 

Seven  and  seven  times  thou  didst  bury  him  in  corners   (  ? ) . 

Thou  didst  love  a  horse  superior  in  the  fray; 

With  whip  and  spur  thou  didst  urge  him  on. 

Thou  didst  force  him  on  for  seven  double  hours.27 

She  could  not  stand  this  insult,  so,  flying  to  her  father, 
Anu,  the  true  sky,  he  creates  for  her  a  divine  bull,  a  storm 
deity;  apparently  in  this  case  a  kind  of  demon.28  The  seal 
cylinders  of  Babylon  frequently  picture  the  battle  that  fol- 
lowed between  this  strong  or  supreme  one  and  Gilgamesh  and 
his  friend  Eabani.  Since  Gilgamesh  is  the  sun,  he  of  course 
conquered.  The  bull  was  killed  and  the  carcass  was  thrown 
full  into  the  face  of  the  canopy  (Ishtar). 

Briefly  this  whole  scene  may  be  thus  interpreted :  Ishtar 
with  her  peace-like  clouds  was  but  a  canopy  in  its  last  stages. 
Unveiled,  it  then  displayed  its  violent  character  (Her).  Its 
brilliant  smiles  produced  a  bitter  chill,  and  Anu,  heaven's 
ocean,  her  own  father,  was  covered  with  the  clouds  of  rain 
and  storm.  Gilgamesh,  the  sun,  conquered  these. 

See  the  sun  himself!  on  wings 
Of  glory  up  the  east  he  springs. 
Angel  of  light!  who  from  the  time* 
Those  heavens  began  their  march  sublime, 
Hath  first  of  all  the  starry  choir 
Trod  in  His  Maker's  steps  of  fire!  » 

"  On  many  seal  cylinders  and  on  the  monuments  Gil- 
gamesh is  pictured  in  the  act  of  fighting  with  or  strangling 
a  lion.  In  the  preserved  portions  of  the  epic  no  reference 


87  "Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  ch.  xxiii,  p.  482. 
28  Ibid.,  p.  483.       ^Lalla  Rookh. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  213 

to  this  contest  has  been  found."  *  *  *  "  After  escaping 
from  the  danger  occasioned  by  the  lions,  Gilgamesh  comes  to 
the  mountain  Mashu,  which  is  described  as  a  place  of  terrors, 
the  entrance  to  which  is  guarded  by  '  scorpion-men.' " 

He  reached  the  mountain  Mashu, 

Whose  exit  is  daily  guarded, 

Whose  back  extends  to  the  dam  of  heaven.80 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  cloud-belt  is  pictured  by  the 
Babylonians  as  a  mountain.  The  description  of  Mashu  is 
dependent  upon  this  conception.  Ragozin  says  of  the  (  scor- 
pion-men '  they  were  "  gigantic  monstrous  beings,  half  men, 
half  scorpions:  their  feet  were  below  the  earth,  while  their 
heads  touched  the  gates  of  heaven ;  they  were  the  wardens  of 
the  sun."  31 

They  were  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  In  the  Greek, 
Hercules  strangles  the  serpents  sent  to  destroy  him  in  the 
cradle.  In  the  Hebrew  it  is  the  house  of  the  Philistines, 
whose  pillars  Samson — Shemesh,  the  Sun — destroyed  and 
thereby  slew  his  enemies.  In  fact,  there  is  no  end  to  the 
figures  under  which  canopy  darkness  is  represented  in  the 
myths  and  legends  of  the  world.  Often  it  is  a  sphinx,  a 
dragon,  or  a  witch.  In  the  Egyptian  symbolism  it  is  a 
scorpion,  conceived  as  stinging  the  sun  to  death,  and  after 
that  sitting  as  guard  over  it.  The  same  appears  to  have 
been  the  conception  in  the  Akkadian  myth  of  '  scorpion-men 9 
which  we  have  just  perused.  "At  the  appearing  of  the  sun, 
and  the  disappearing  of  the  sun,  they  guard  the  sun."  32 
Plainly  they  stand  at  the  imaginary  boundary  between  firm 
land  and  the  watery  region  of  the  upper  world.  In  the  epic 
(60,  9)  one  version  reads  that  the  "  Scorpion  man  and  his 
wife  guard  the  gate  leading  to  the  great  cloud  mountain, 
Mashu."  As  they  watched  the  sun  rise  and  set  in  the  slit 


30 Ibid.,  pp.  488,  489.          "Story  of  Chaldea,"  ch.  vii,  p.  311. 
32  Substance  of  the  above  culled  from  Charles  De  B.  Mills'  "  The  Tree 
of  Mythology,"  p.  162. 


214  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

between  them,  i.e.,  between  the  two  pillars,  verily  they  were 
its  guardians.  Their  upper  part,  as  the  text  says,  reaches  to 
the  sky,  and  their  irtu  (breast?)  to  the  lower  regions.  This 
lower  or  hidden  part,  which  seemed  to  the  ancients  to  go 
down  below  the  horizon,  was  the  scorpion  part. 

The  scorpion-men  bring  us  back  to  the  story  of  Ea,  for 
Gilgamesh  was  on  his  way  to  find  Parnapishtim  when  he 
came  across  these  strange  beings.  Parnapishtim  was  the 
Noah  of  the  epic,  though  in  some  of  the  details  he  bears  a 
closer  resemblance  to  Lot  than  to  the  patriarch  of  the  deluge. 

Gilgamesh  speaks  to  Sabitum: 
"  (Now)  Sabitum,  which  is  the  way  to  Parnapishtim? 

If  it  is  possible,  let  me  cross  the  ocean. 

If  it  is  not  possible,  let  me  stretch  myself  on  the  ground." 

Sabitum  speaks  to  Gilgamesh: 
"  0  Gilgamesh !  there  has  never  been  a  ferry, 

And  no  one  has  ever  crossed  the  ocean. 

Shamash,  the  hero,  has  crossed  it,  but  except  Shamash,  who  can  cross  it? 

Difficult  is  the  passage,  very  difficult  the  path. 

Impassable   ( ? )   the  waters  of  death  that  are  guarded  by  a  bolt. 

How  canst  thou,  O  Gilgamesh,  traverse  the  ocean? 

And  after  thou  hast  crossed  the  waters  of  death,  what  wilt  thou  do?  " 

As  we  have  not  yet  become  acquainted  with  Shamash,  a 
digression  from  the  epic  will  be  in  order,  so  that  we  may 
come  to  know  the  sun  and  moon  gods.  Shamash  was  the 
original  or  older  Sun-god  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  of  the 
early  Babylonian  or  Sumerian  religion,  that  his  cult  was 
subordinate  to  the  worship  of  Sin,  the  Moon-god.  Indeed, 
according  to  one  tradition,  Shamash  was  regarded  as  the 
son  of  the  Moon-god,  and  verily  this  tradition  is  founded  on 
fact,  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  an  actual  neces- 
sity of  nature  that  caused  the  sun  first  to  be  seen  in  the  vapor 
arch  or  moon  where  he  was  born,  as  it  were,  in  the  water  and 
out  of  the  water.  Sin  was  originally  the  moon-like  arch,  but 
later  he  is  represented  on  some  of  the  tablets  accompanied  by 


83  Jastrow,    "  Religion   of   Babylonia   and   Assyria,"    ch.    xxiii,   pp. 
490-491. 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  215 

the  lunar  disk.34  Undoubtedly  this  was  a  later  development 
of  the  cult.  In  the  beginning  Sin  was  the  vapor-arc,  simply 
a  crescent  arc.  After  the  deluge,  when  the  gods  fled  to  the 
clear  vault  of  heaven,  Sin  naturally  became  identified  again 
with  the  only  crescent  form  in  the  clear  sky,  the  new  moon, 
j^annar  means  '  the  illuminator  ' ;  it  is  one  of  the  names 
of  Sin.  The  following  extracts  from  the  moon  hymn  illus- 
trate the  conceptions  current  about  this  deity: 

Father  Nannar,  moon-god,  chief  of  the  gods. 

Father  Nannar,  lord  of  the  brilliant  crescent,  chief  of  the  gods. 

O  strong  bull,  great  of  horns,  perfect  in  form,  with  long  flowing  beard 

of  the  color  of  lapus-lazuli. 
Powerful  one,  self-created,  a  product  (  ?)  beautiful  to  look  upon,  whose 

fulness  has  not  yet  been  brought  forth. 
Father,  begetter  of  the  gods  and  of  men,  establishing  dwellings  and 

granting  gifts.35 

The  statement  that  the  gods  were  born  of  the  moon  stamps 
it  as  the  beginning  place  of  the  sky-scenes,  the  canopy.  When 
the  moon  came  to  be  conceived  as  a  female  divinity,  Ishtar 
became  also  the  goddess  of  the  moon.  This  '  shiner  '  or  moon 
was  likewise  the  sun  of  the  ancients. 

The  winged  sun  of  Assyria  is  one  of  the  most  familiar 
emblems  in  the  architectural  adornment  of  the  east.  The 
attribute  of  flight  indicates  that  the  original  sun  was  the 
'  shiner/  the  swift  moving  canopy  itself.  Another  statement 
that  proves  that  the  sun  was  originally  the  canopy  is  that 
Mnib — the  major  solar  deity — swallowed  up  Mn-girsu, 
!N^in-gish-zidu,  another  solar  deity,  and  Nin-shakh.  E"in- 
shaka-kuddu  was  '  the  mistress  of  Uruk/  '  the  lady  of  shining 
waters.'  But  to  return  to  the  epic  of  Gilgamesh: 

Ea  warned  Parnapishtim  of  the  approach  of  the  flood. 
Now,  Ea  lived  in  the  sky-stream  above,  and  no  doubt  the 
aspect  of  the  stream  conveyed  the  warning. 


Notably  on  the  cylinder-seal  No.  89126,  British  Museum. 
Jastrow,  "Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  ch.  xvii,  p.  303. 


216  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Doomed  to  destruction  'neath  the  dank  dark  cloud  with  nothing  to 

indemnify — 
The  earth  was  doomed  'neath  the  great  black  thing  which  hung  in  the 

parted  sky. 

Parnapishtim  told  the  story  to  Gilgamesh  as  follows : 

Parnapishtim  spoke  to  Gilgamesh: 
"  I  will  tell  thee,  Gilgamesh,  the  marvelous  story, 

And  the  decision  of  the  gods  I  will  tell  thee. 

The  city  Shurippak,  a  city  which,  as  thou  knowest, 

Lies  on  the  Euphrates, 

That  city  was  corrupt,  so  that  the  gods  thereof 

Decided  to  bring  a  rainstorm  upon  it. 

All  of  the  great  gods,  Anu,  their  father; 

Their  counsellor,  the  warrior  Bel; 

The  bearer  of  destruction,  Ninib; 

Their  leader,  En-nugi; 

The  lord  of  unsearchable  wisdom,  Ea,  was  with  them, 

To  proclaim  their  resolve  to  the  reed-huts. 
'Reed-hut,  reed-hut,  clay  structures,  clay  structures, 

Reed-hut,  hear!     Clay  structure,  give  ear!  ' 
****** 

O  man  of  Shurippak,  son  of  Kidin-Marduk ! 
Erect  a  structure,  build  a  ship." 

"  Parnapishtim  declares  his  readiness  to  obey  the  orders 
of  Ea,  but,  like  Moses  upon  receiving  the  command  of 
Yahwe,  he  asks  what  he  should  say  when  people  questioned 
him. 

"What  shall  I  answer  the  city,  the  people,  and  the  elders?" 

Ea  replies : 

"  Thus  answer  and  speak  to  them : 
'  Bel  has  cast  me  out  in  his  hatred, 

So  that  I  can  no  longer  dwell  in  your  city. 

On  Bel's  territory  I  dare  no  longer  show  my  face; 

Therefore,  I  go  to  the  "  deep  "  to  dwell  with  Ea,  my  lord. 
***** 

Over  you  a  rainstorm  will  come, 
Men,  birds,  and  beasts  will  perish. 
***** 

When  Shamash  will  bring  on  the  time,  then  the  lord  of  the  whirlstorm 
Will  cause  destruction  to  rain  upon  you  in  the  evening." 


BABYLONIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  MYTHS  217 

Parnapishtim   now   proceeds   to   take   his   family   and 
chattels  on  board. 

"  All  that  I  had,  I  loaded  on  the  ship. 
With  all  the  silver  that  I  had,  I  loaded  it, 
With  all  the  gold  that  I  had,  I  loaded  it, 
With  living  creatures  of  all  kinds  I  loaded  it. 
I  brought  on  board  my  whole  family  and  household, 
Cattle  of  the  field,  beasts  of  the  field,  workmen — all  this  I  took  on 
board."  -  / 

Parnapishtim  is  ready  to  enter  the  ship,  but  he  waits 
until  the  time  fixed  for  the  storm  arrives. 

"  When  the  time  came 

For  the  lord  of  the  whirlstorm  to  rain  down  destruction, 
1  gazed  on  the  earth; 
I  was  terrified  at  its  sight, 
I  entered  the  ship,  and  closed  the  door. 

To  the  captain  of  the  ship,  to  Puzur-Shadurabu,M  the  sailor, 
I  entrusted  the  structure  with  all  its  contents. 
***** 

Upon  the  first  appearance  of  dawn 
There  arose  from  the  horizon  dark  clouds, 
Within  which  Ramman  caused  his  thunder  to  resound. 
Nabu  and  Sharru  marched  at  the  front. 
The  destroyers  passed  across  mountains  and  land. 
Dibbarra  lets  loose  the  (mischievous  forces?), 
Ninib  advances  in  furious  hostility. 
The  Anunnaki  raise  torches 
Whose  sheen  illumines  the  universe, 
As  Ramman's  whirlwind  sweeps  the  heavens, 
And  all  light  is  changed  to  darkness. 
***** 

Brother  does  not  look  after  brother, 

Men  care  not  for  another.     In  the  heavens, 

Even  the  gods  are  terrified  at  the  storm. 

They  take  refuge  in  the  heaven  of  Anu. 

The  gods  cowered  like  dogs  at  the  edge  of  the  heavens." 

The  significance  of  this  language  is  remarkable :  the  gods 


"Puzur"   signifies   "hidden,"   "protected."    "Shadu   rabu,"   i.e., 
"great  mountain,"  is  a  title  of  Bel. 


218  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

had  to  cower  on  the  edge  of  heaven  because  the  canopy  which 
had  been  their  home  had  passed  away. 

"  Ishtar  groans  like  a  women  in  throes, 
The  lofty  goddess  cries  with  loud  voice, 
The  world  of  old  has  become  a  mass  of  clay. 
*         *         *         *         * 

That  I  should  have  assented  to  this  evil  among  the  gods! 

That  when  I  assented  to  this  evil, 

I  was  for  the  destruction  of  my  own  creatures! 

What  I  created,  where  is  it? 

Like  so  many  fish,  it  fills  the  sea." 8T 


87  Jastrow,  "  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  ch.  xxiii,  p.  495  ff. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

EGYPTIAN  MYTHS 

IN  Egypt,  the  dead  grave-yard  of  the  past,  the  present 
hypothesis  finds  a  living  record  which  begins  with  the  memo- 
rials of  the  old  sky  scenes,  followed  by  the  introduction  of 
pure  and  simple  sun  worship  (disk- worship)  in  the  eigh- 
teenth dynasty.1  This  change  of  cult  was  too  radical,  how- 
ever, for  the  people  of  that  day,  so  they  reverted  to  their  old 
gods,  whose  memory  was  probably  still  kept  before  them  by 
lingering  remnants  of  the  dethroned  system.2 

The  critical  or  turning  event  in  this  history  is  the  change 
of  cult  to  disk-worship.  In  Assyria  we  have  the  winged 
disk,  emblem  of  Ashur.  The  interpretation  of  which  is 
that  the  head  of  the  Assyrian  pantheon  was  some  phase  of 
the  personified  sun.  Frequently  a  tail  was  attached  to  the 


*In  the  twentieth  dynasty  (1100  B.C.)  a  series  of  star  tables  have 
been  found  recorded  in  several  manuscripts  recovered  from  the  tombs. 

2  It  is  said  of  Solon  the  Greek  law-giver,  that  when  he  visited  Egypt, 
six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  he  had  a  talk  with  the  priests  of  Sais 
about  the  Deluge  of  Deucalion.  The  following  is  Plato's  account: 
"Thereupon,  one  of  the  priests,  who  was  of  very  great  age,  said,  'O 
Solon,  Solon,  you  Hellenes  are  but  children,  and  there  is  never  an 
old  man  who  is  an  Hellene/  Solon,  hearing  this,  said,  '  What  do  you 
mean? '  '  I  mean  to  say,'  he  replied,  *  that  in  mind  you  are  all  young; 
there  is  no  old  opinion  handed  down  among  you  by  ancient  tradition, 
nor  any  science  which  is  hoary  with  age.  And  I  will  tell  you  the 
reason  of  this:  there  have  been,  and  there  will  be  again,  many  destruc- 
tions of  mankind  arising  out  of  many  causes.  There  is  a  story  which 
even  you  have  preserved,  that  once  upon  a  time  Phaeton,  the  son  of 
Helios,  having  yoked  the  steeds  in  his  father's  chariot,  because  he  was 
not  able  to  drive  them  in  the  path  of  his  father,  burnt  up  all  that  was 
upon  the  earth  and  was  himself  destroyed  by  a  thunderbolt.  Now, 
this  has  the  form  of  a  myth,  but  really  signifies  a  declination  of  the 
bodies  moving  around  the  earth  and  in  the  heavens,  and  a  great  con- 
flagration of  things  upon  the  earth  recurring  at  long  intervals  of  time." 
"Dialogues,"  xi,  517,  Timseus. 

219 


220  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

wings,  the  meaning  of  which  was  that  the  bird  or  sun  was 
seen  moving  over  the  canopy. 

This  same  symbol,  without  the  tail,  strikingly  resembles 
the  Egyptian  emblem;  the  wings  of  the  latter,  however,  are 
those  of  the  sparrow-hawk,  their  sacred  bird.  As  time  passed 
on,  the  wings  were  dropped.  The  sun  came  clearer  and 
clearer  into  view,  until  finally  the  vapor  appendages  dissi- 
pated forever;  naturally  the  symbolic  representations  were 
altered  in  order  to  conform  to  the  new  conditions,  hence  the 
wings  were  dropped. 

Rawlinson  says :  "  Aten,  in  Egyptian  theology,  had 
hitherto  represented  a  particular  aspect  or  character  of  Ha, 
'the  sun' — that  aspect  which  is  expressed  by  the  phrase, 
'  the  solar  disk.'  How  it  was  possible  to  keep  Aten  distinct 
from  the  other  sun-gods,  Ra,  Khepra,  Turn,  Shu,  Mentu, 
Osiris,  and  Horus  or  Harmachis,  is  a  puzzle  to  moderns; 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  a  difficulty  practically  overcome  by 
the  Egyptians,  to  whom  it  did  not  perhaps  even  present  itself 
as  a  difficulty  at  all.  Disk-worship  consisted  then,  primarily, 
in  an  undue  exaltation  of  this  god,  who  was  made  to  take  the 
place  of  Ammon-Ra  in  the  Pantheon,  and  was  ordinarily 
represented  by  a  circle  with  rays  proceeding  from  it,  the  rays 
mostly  terminating  in  hands,  which  frequently  presented  the 
symbols  of  life  and  health  and  strength  to  the  worshiper."  3 

From  the  viewpoint  of  the  present  hypothesis  the  diffi- 
culty which  Rawlinson  mentions  relative  to  the  fact  that  the 
ancients  kept  distinct  the  various  aspects  of  the  sun,  naming 
them  as  different  gods,  fizzles  away.  We  moderns  cannot 
find  enough  phases  in  the  existing  sun  to  go  around  amongst 
the  gods.  Had  we  lived  under  the  canopy  skies,  everything 
would  have  been  different;  for  instance,  Ammon  or  Amen 
means  '  concealer/  and  this  god  is  often  coupled  with  another 
as  Amen-Ra,  the  solar  deity  covered.4 

1 "  The  story  of  Ancient  Egypt,"  ch.  xiv,  p.  224. 

*E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  "The  Dwellers  on  the  Nile,"  4th  ed.,  p.  142. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS 


<Aten>  is  probably  the  same  as  '  Adon,'  the  root  of 
Adonis;  thus  we  see  how  the  Greeks  also  worshiped  this 
feature  of  the  glorious  sun,  but  their  story  has  mellowed  with 
age.  Adonis  was  a  youth  who  died  from  a  wound  received 
from  a  boar  during  the  chase — plainly  the  youthful  sun  was 
swallowed  up  by  the  remnant  of  a  floating  vapor-form.  Orig- 
inally he  was  six  months  behind  the  canopy  and  six  months 
in  the  open  space.  Later  the  worship  of  Adonis  appears  to 
have  had  reference  to  the  death  of  nature  in  winter  and  to 
its  revival  in  spring,  hence  Adonis  spent  six  months  in  the 
lower  world  and  six  months  in  the  upper. 

But  to  return  to  Egypt :  "  In  the  matter  of  religion," 
says  Kawlinson,  "  the  most  noticeable  changes  which  occurred 
are  connected  with  the  disk-worship,  with  the  alternate  ele- 
vation and  depression  of  the  god  Set.  The  cult  of  the  disk, 
favored  by  Amenophis  III,  and  fully  established  by  his  son, 
Amenophis  IV,  or  Khuenaten,  is  chiefly  remarkable  on 
account  of  its  exclusive  character,  the  disk-worshipers  oppos- 
ing and  disallowing  all  other  cults  and  religious  usages.  Had 
Khuenaten  been  able  to  effect  the  religious  revolution  at 
which  he  aimed,  the  old  Egyptian  religion  would  have  been 
destroyed,  and  its  place  would  have  'been  taken  by  a  species 
of  monotheism,  in  which  the  material  Sun  would  have  been 
recognized  as  the  One  and  only  Lord,  and  Ruler  of  the  Uni- 
verse. Ammon,  Khem,  Kneph,  Phthah,  Maut,  Khonsu, 
Osiris,  Horus,  Isis,  Thoth  would  have  disappeared,  and  the 
sun-worship,  pure  and  simple,  would  have  replaced  the  old 
complicated  polytheism.  But  Egypt  was  not  prepared  for 
this  change."  5 

Egypt  was  not  ready  to  overturn  her  gods,  so  let  us  look 
behind  the  doors  of  the  vapor  belt,  at  the  scenes  which  im- 
pressed themselves  so  strongly  on  their  minds  as  to  cause 
them  to  believe  that  they  saw  into  the  chambers  of  higher 

5 "  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,"  vol.  ii,  ch.  xxi,  p.  188. 


222  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

beings  than  themselves.  Their  eyes  revealed  to  them  the 
'Hall  of  the  Two  Truths'  (i.e.,  the  Pillars  of  Hercules), 
the  double  abode  of  the  sun  in  the  heavens,  through  which, 
according  to  the  teachings  of  their  theology,  their  dead  had 
to  pass  and  where  they  themselves  would  have  to  stand  in 
judgment  before  Osiris,  the  sun-god,  '  Lord  of  Life,'  before 
they  could  enter  to  the  fields  of  eternity  beyond. 

It  is  recorded  of  Osiris  that  in  the  Hall  of  Two  Truths 
he  sat  beneath  a  canopy.  When  he  disappeared  behind  it 
he  was  '  lost '  and  all  Egypt  mourned  for  him.  When  he 
returned  he  was  said  to  be  '  found,'  and  then  all  Egypt 
rejoiced.  The  myth  of  '  Osiris  Lost,'  when  all  Egypt 
mourned,  represents  the  annual  journey  of  the  sun  behind 
the  northern  or  falling  cloud  bank.  The  important  point  is 
that  the  myth  does  not  deal  with  the  daily  conflict  between 
day  and  night,  but  in  its  full  expansion  it  covers  the  whole 
year.  The  echo  of  this  event  sounded  down  through  the 
ages  long  afterwards.  Rawlinson  says: 

"  Other  feasts  were  held  in  honor  of  Osiris  on  the  sev- 
enteenth day  of  Athyr  and  the  nineteenth  of  Pashons ;  in  the 
former  of  which  the  '  loss  of  Osiris,'  and  in  the  latter  his 
recovery,  were  commemorated.  A  cow,  emblematic  of  Isis, 
was  veiled  in  black  and  led  about  for  four  successive  days, 
accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  men  and  women,  who  beat  their 
breasts  in  memory  of  the  supposed  disappearance  of  Osiris 
from  earth  and  his  sister's  search  for  him ;  while,  in  memory 
of  his  recovery,  a  procession  was  made  to  the  seaside,  the 
priests  carrying  a  sacred  chest,  and,  an  image  or  emblem  of 
Osiris  fashioned  out  of  earth  and  water  having  been  placed 
in  it,  the  declaration  was  made,  '  Osiris  is  found !  Osiris  is 
found !  '  amid  general  festivity  and  rejoicing."  6 

The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  gives  a  legend  from  the 
Quiche  Indians  of  Central  America  which  depicts  this  same 
scene :  "  Now,  behold,  our  ancients  and  our  fathers  were 

6  "  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,"  vol.  i,  ch.  x,  p.  199. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  223 

made  lords,  and  had  their  dawn.  Behold,  we  will  relate  also 
the  rising  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars!  Great  was 
their  joy  when  they  saw  the  morning-star,  which  came  out 
first,  with  its  resplendent  face  before  the  sun.  At  last  the 
sun  itself  began  to  come  forth ;  the  animals,  small  and  great, 
were  in  joy;  they  rose  from  the  water-courses  and  ravines, 
and  stood  on  the  mountain-tops,  with  their  heads  toward 
where  the  sun  was  coming.  An  innumerable  crowd  of  people 
were  there,  and  the  dawn  cast  light  on  all  these  people  at 
once.  At  last  the  face  of  the  ground  was  dried  by  the  sun ; 
like  a  man  the  sun  showed  himself,  and  his  presence  warmed 
and  dried  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Before  the  sun  ap- 
peared, muddy  and  wet  was  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and 
it  was  before  the  sun  appeared,  and  then  only  the  sun  rose 
like  a  man.  But  his  heat  had  no  strength,  and  he  did  but 
show  himself  when  he  rose ;  he  only  remained  like  a  mirror ; 
and  it  is  not,  indeed,  the  same  sun  that  appears  now,  they 
say,  in  the  stories."  7 

The  death  of  Osiris  has  many  like  parallels  in  ancient 
thought.  Both  annular,  and  also  astronomical.  For  instance, 
Epictetus  favors  the  opinion  that  at  the  solstices  of  the  great 
year  not  only  all  human  beings,  but  even  the  gods,  are 
annihilated,  and  speculates  whether  at  such  time  Jove  feels 
lonely.8  The  bank  behind  which  Osiris  disappeared  was  one 
of  the  Halls  of  Two  Truths,  to  which  the  deceased  were 
directed  by  the  '  Ritual,  or  Book  of  the  Dead.' 

A  passage  in  this  book  which  contains  instructions  for  the 
deceased  reads :  "  Retreat  unto  the  eastern  heavens.  Unto 
the  dwellings  which  support  the  mount.  That  great  mys- 
terious mountain  that  spreads  light  among  the  gods."  The 
reason  for  this  direction  to  the  dead  was  probably  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  cloud-mountain  in  its  daily  revolution  kept 
ever  turning  towards  the  east.  In  the  third  part  of  the 

7  Tylor,  "  Early  History  of  Mankind,"  p.  308. 
8 "  Discourses,"  book  iii,  ch.  xiii. 


224  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Ritual,  the  deceased  in  company  with  the  sun  himself  tra- 
verse the  various  houses  of  heaven.  In  the  cosmologies  of 
the  ancients  these  great  black  halls  or  chambers  (hiding 
places)  are  associated  with  the  abode  of  the  damned  and  lost 
souls.  In  the  Homeric  conception,  they  are  called  Hades 
and  Tartarus.  It  is  not  credible,  as  some  scholars  would  have 
it,  that  the  early  Greeks,  unschooled  in  the  exercise  of  the 
scientific  imagination  and  unacquainted  with  Newton's  law 
of  gravitation,  could  have  pictured  a  pendent  under-surface 
of  the  earth,  around  which  flopped  topsy-turvy  ghosts,  and 
also  that  infernal  rivers  and  infernal  palaces  could  have 
clung  to  this  under-hemisphere. 

The  myth  of  Osiris  and  his  consort  Isis,  whose  image  is 
crowned  with  the  sun  disk,  is  as  follows : 

"Osiris  and  Isis  were  at  one  time  induced  to  descend 
to  the  earth  to  bestow  gifts  and  blessings  on  its  inhabitants. 
Isis  showed  them  first  the  use  of  wheat  and  barley,  and 
Osiris  made  the  instruments  of  agriculture  and  taught  men 
the  use  of  them,  as  well  as  how  to  harness  the  ox  to  the 
plough.  He  then  gave  men  laws,  the  institution  of  marriage, 
a  civil  organization,  and  taught  them  how  to  worship  the 
gods.  After  he  had  thus  made  the  valley  of  the  Nile  a  happy 
country,  he  assembled  a  host  with  which  he  went  to  bestow 
his  blessing  upon  the  rest  of  the  world.  He  conquered  the 
nations  everywhere  only  with  music  and  eloquence.  His 
brother  Typhon  saw  this,  and  sought  during  his  absence  to 
usurp  his  throne.  But  Isis,  who  held  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment, frustrated  his  plans.  Still  more  embittered,  he  now 
resolved  to  kill  his  brother.  Having  organized  a  conspiracy 
of  seventy-two  members,  he  went  with  them  to  the  feast  which 
was  celebrated  in  honor  of  the  king's  return.  He  then  caused 
a  box  or  chest  to  be  brought  in,  which  had  been  made  to  fit 
exactly  the  size  of  Osiris,  and  declared  that  he  would  give 
that  chest  of  precious  wood  to  whosoever  could  get  into  it. 
The  rest  tried  in  vain,  but  no  sooner  was  Osiris  in  it  than 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  225 

Typhon  and  his  companions  closed  the  lid  and  flung  the 
chest  into  the  Nile.  When  Isis  heard  of  the  cruel  murder 
she  wept  and  mourned ;  and  then,  with  her  hair  shorn,  clothed 
in  black,  and  beating  her  breast,  she  sought  diligently  for 
the  body  of  her  husband.  In  this  search  she  was  materially 
assisted  by  Anubis,  the  son  of  Osiris  and  Nephthys.  They 
sought  in  vain  for  some  time;  for  when  the  chest,  carried 
by  the  waves  to  the  shores  of  Byblos,  had  become  entangled 
in  the  reeds  that  grew  at  the  edge  of  the  water,  the  divine 
power  that  dwelt  in  the  body  of  Osiris  imparted  such  strength 
to  the  shrub  that  it  grew  into  a  mighty  tree,  enclosing  in  its 
trunk  the  coffin  of  the  god.  This  tree,  with  its  sacred  deposit, 
was  shortly  after  felled,  and  erected  as  a  column  in  the  palace 
of  the  king  of  Phoenicia.  But  at  length,  by  the  aid  of 
Anubis  and  the  sacred  birds,  Isis  ascertained  these  facts,  and 
then  went  to  the  royal  city.  There  she  offered  herself  at 
the  palace  as  a  servant,  and,  being  admitted,  threw  off  her 
disguise  and  appeared  as  the  goddess,  surrounded  with  thun- 
der and  lightning.  Striking  the  column  with  her  wand,  she 
caused  it  to  split  open  and  give  up  the  sacred  coffin."  9 

Interpreted,  this  means  that  sunlight  brought  gifts  to 
man  in  the  shape  of  agricultural  plenty.  Then  an  enemy 
called  Typhon,  the  personified  canopy,  trapped  him  in  his 
folds  or  coffin.  Typhon's  name  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew 
word  for  north,  '  Tsaphon.'  He  stretched  out  the  canopy  we 
read  across  the  empty  space  in  the  north  sky  (Job  xxvi:  7). 
The  pillars  of  heaven  trembled  (verse  11),  and  the  heavens 
were  garnished  by  the  crooked  serpent  (verse  13).  Apophis 
was  the  Egyptian  serpent  of  darkness.  "  He  is  portrayed," 
says  Rawlinson,  "  either  as  a  huge  serpent  disposed  in  many 
folds,  or  as  a  water-snake  with  a  human  head.  He  was  sup- 
posed to  have  sided  with  Set  against  Osiris,  and  to  have 
thereby  provoked  the  anger  of  Horus,  who  is  frequently  rep- 

9 "  Bulfinch's  Age  of  Fable,"  Revised  edit,  of  Rev.  J.  Loughran  Scott, 
pp.  369-370. 
15 


326  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

resented  as  piercing  his  head  with  a  spear."  10  He  is  a  sky- 
scene  that  seems  to  have  impeded  the  progress  of  souls  on 
their  journey  to  the  '  Hall  of  Two  Truths.'  Subsequently 
he  gave  way,  in  the  mythic  system,  to  Set  or  Typhon,  which 
is  logical,  as  he  was  practically  the  same  personified  natural 
phenomenon.  F.  De  Lanoye  says : 

"  In  the  Egyptian  mythology,  Apophis,  the  serpent,  is 
the  great  enemy  of  the  Sun ;  in  several  hypogees  he  is  repre- 
sented as  struggling  against  the  gods  of  the  Amenti,  who 
succeed  in  capturing  and  chaining  him."  n 

Typhon  and  the  companions  who  were  with  him,  after 
they  had  trapped  the  sun,  closed  the  lid  of  the  chest  and 
flung  him  into  a  river  which  the  myth  designates  as  the  Nile, 
but  which  older  sources  clearly  indicates  was  heaven's  river. 
The  tree  in  which  the  coffin  became  incased  is  the  same  as 
Ygdrasil,  the  world  tree  of  the  Scandinavians.  This  great 
ash  is  supposed  to  have  supported  the  whole  universe,  but 
suffice  it  for  the  present,  with  lightning  and  thunder,  the 
goddess  of  sunlight  made  the  mighty  column  or  tree  to  split 
open  and  surrender  the  sun  himself.  Horus,  the  new  sun 
god,  is  said  to  have  despatched  Typhon  with  a  sun-dart,  which 
pierced  his  watery  head  through  and  through.  This  again  is 
nothing  but  the  tale  of  Apophis. 

Many  details  of  this  wonderful  myth  could  be  dwelt  on. 
Thus  in  the  Isle  of  Philse,  in  the  temple  dedicated  to  Osiris 
and  his  wife  and  their  son  Horus,  sculptured  on  the  walls  is 
a  complete  record  of  this  legend.  The  last  shrine  represents 
Osiris  rising  from  a  couch  which  is  supported  by  two  legs 
and  is  arched  just  like  the  body  of  Nu-t.  It  could  not  be 
more  suggestive  of  the  sun  resting  on  the  arched  canopy.  It 
is  depicted  as  it  appeared  to  the  Egyptians. 


"  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,"  vol.  i,  ch.  x,  p.  186. 
11 "  Wonders  of  Art  and  Archaeology  in  Egypt  3300  Years  Ago,"  p. 


146.     See  "  Champollion's  Letters  from  Egypt." 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  227 

Typhon,  or  Set,  as  lie  is  often  called,12  like  all  the  per- 
sonifications of  the  canopy,  was  at  first  a  good  deity.  He 
afterwards  became  the  principle  of  evil,  and,  rapidly  running 
down  the  scale,  he  finally  became  the  very  synonym  of  death 
itself.  Set  or  Seb  was  the  son  of  Ra,  the  ancient  sun.  This 
luminary  was  nothing  but  the  shiner  or  canopy.  So,  also, 
the  ancient  moon  was  not  our  present  satellite,  but  only  a 
crescent  form  of  the  ring.  The  mutilation  of  the  sun's  body 
by  Typhon  is  one  of  many  similar  descriptions  found  else- 
wheres.  The  earth  was  covered  with  sun-fragments  every 
time  a  canopy  broke  up  its  light. 

The  Ute  philosopher  has  strangely  mixed  the  matter  of 
the  mutilation  of  this  old  sun  or  shining  canopy  with  the 
occasional  disappearance  of  the  sun  itself.  Ta-vi,  the  sun- 
god,  must  have  originally  been  the  blazing  canopy,  and  then 
like  Osiris  he  became  the  true  sun.  The  legend  is  as  follows : 

"In  that  long  ago,  the  time  to  which  all  mythology  refers, 
the  sun  roamed  the  earth  at  will.  When  he  came  too  near 
with  his  fierce  heat  the  people  were  scorched,  and  when  he 
hid  away  in  his  cave  for  a  long  time,  too  idle  to  come  forth, 
the  night  was  long  and  the  earth  cold.  Once  upon  a  time 
Ta-wats,  the  hare-god,  was  sitting  with  his  family  by  the 
camp-fire  in  the  solemn  woods,  anxiously  waiting  for  the 
return  of  Ta-vi,  the  wayward  sun-god.  Wearied  with  long 
watching,  the  hare-god  fell  asleep,  and  the  sun-god  came  so 
near  that  he  scorched  the  naked  shoulder  of  Ta-wats.  Fore- 
seeing the  vengeance  which  would  be  thus  provoked,  he  fled 
back  to  his  cave  beneath  the  earth.  Ta-wats  awoke  in  great 
anger,  and  speedily  determined  to  go  and  fight  the  sun-god. 
After  a  long  journey  of  many  adventures,  the  hare-god  came 
to  the  brink  of  the  earth,  and  there  watched  long  and 

12  Egyptologists  admit  that  Set,  Sit,  Typhon,  Bes,  and  Sutekh  are 
identical.  To  this  list  possibly  Ombo  and  Nubi  should  be  added. 
Apophis  also  was  a  form  of  Typhon.  Sutekh  was  a  god  of  the  Canaan- 
ites.  Maspero,  "  Histoire  Ancienne"  p.  165. 


228  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

patiently,  till  at  last,  the  sun-god  coming  out,  lie  shot  an 
arrow  at  his  face,  but  the  fierce  heat  consumed  the  arrow  ere 
it  had  finished  its  intended  course;  then  another  arrow  was 
sped,  but  that  also  was  consumed;  and  another,  and  still 
another,  till  only  one  remained  in  his  quiver.  But  this  was 
the  magical  arrow  that  had  never  failed  its  mark.  Ta-wats, 
holding  it  in  his  hand,  lifted  the  barb  to  his  eye  and  baptized 
it  in  a  divine  tear ;  then  the  arrow  was  sped  and  struck  the 
sun-god  full  in  the  face,  and  the  sun  was  shivered  into  a 
thousand  fragments,  which  fell  to  the  earth,  causing  a  gen- 
eral conflagration.  Then  Ta-wats,  the  hare-god,  fled  before 
the  destruction  he  had  wrought,  and  as  he  fled  the  burning 
earth  consumed  his  feet,  consumed  his  legs,  consumed  his 
body,  consumed  his  hands  and  his  arms — all  were  consumed 
but  the  head  alone,  which  bowled  across  valleys  and  over 
mountains,  fleeing  destruction  from  the  burning  earth,  until 
at  last,  swollen  with  heat,  the  eyes  of  the  god  burst  and  the 
tears  gushed  forth  in  a  flood  which  spread  over  the  earth  and 
extinguished  the  fire.  The  sun-god  was  now  conquered,  and 
he  appeared  before  a  council  of  the  gods  to  await  sentence. 
In  that  long  council  were  established  the  days  and  nights, 
the  seasons  and  the  years,  with  the  length  thereof,  and  the 
sun  was  condemned  to  travel  across  the  firmament  by  the 
same  trail  day  after  day  till  the  end  of  time."  13 

The  Greeks  have  portrayed  certain  features  of  this  tale 
in  the  legend  of  Phaeton.  This  god  was  a  son  of  Sol. 
Anxious  to  display  his  skill  in  horsemanship,  he  was  allowed 
to  drive  the  chariot  of  his  father  for  one  day.  The  horses  of 
the  sun  soon  found  out  the  incapacity  of  the  charioteer, 
became  unmanageable,  and  overturned  the  chariot.  There 
was  such  fear  of  injury  to  heaven  and  earth,  that  Jove,  to 
stop  the  destruction,  killed  Phaeton  with  a  thunderbolt. 

"  Even  the  ruler  of  vast  Olympus,  who  hurls  the  ruthless 


Popular  Science  Monthly,"  October,  1879,  p.  799. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  229 

bolts  with  his  terrific  right  hand,  cannot  guide  this  chariot; 
and  yet  what  have  we  greater  than  Jupiter  ?  The  first  part 
of  the  road  is  steep,  and  such  as  the  horses,  though  fresh  in 
the  morning,  can  hardly  climb.  In  the  middle  of  the  heaven 
it  is  high  aloft,  whence  it  is  often  a  source  of  fear,  even  to 
myself,  to  look  down  upon  the  sea  and  the  earth,  and  my 
breast  trembles  with  fearful  apprehensions.  The  last  stage 
is  a  steep  descent,  and  requires  a  sure  command  of  the 
horses.  *  *  *  Besides,  the  heavens  are  carried  round 
with  a  constant  rotation,  and  carry  with  them  the  lofty  stars, 
and  whirl  them  with  rapid  revolution.  Against  this  I  have  to 
contend;  and  that  force  which  overcomes  all  other  things 
does  not  overcome  me,  and  I  am  carried  in  a  contrary  direc- 
tion to  the  rapid  world."  14 

Be  it  noted  that  Ovid  supposes  the  rapid  world-cloud  to 
move  or  revolve  in  one  direction,  while  the  sun  appears  to 
move  in  the  other.  William  F.  Warren  is  authority  for  the 
following : 

"  Now,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  it  a  mere  accident  that 
in  various  ancient  authors  we  find  allusion  both  to  an  ex- 
tremely ancient  displacement  of  the  sky  and  its  supposed 
original  state.  None  of  these  allusions  have  ever  been 
explained  by  writers  on  the  subject.  One  of  them  occurs  in 
Plato's  Timseus,  where,  in  language  ascribed  to  an  Egyptian 
priest  of  Solon's  time,  '  a  declination  of  the  bodies  revolving 
round  the  earth '  is  spoken  of,  and  this  declination  is  offered 
as  the  true  explanation  of  the  partial  destruction  of  the  world 
commemorated  in  the  myth  of  Phaeton.  As  this  destruction 
was  by  fire,  there  would  at  first  sight  seem  to  be  no  connection 
between  it  and  the  destruction  at  the  time  of  the  Deluge; 
nor  is  there  in  the  context  anything  to  suggest  such  a  con- 
nection. Fortunately,  however,  we  have  in  Hyginus  a  fuller 
version  of  the  myth,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  Greeks 


"Ovid,  "The  Metamorphoses,"  book  xi,  fable  1. 


230  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

supposed  Deucalion's  universal  flood  to  have  been  providen- 
tially sent  to  extinguish  the  fearful  conflagration  which 
Phaeton's  unskilful  driving  of  the  steeds  of  the  sun  had  occa- 
sioned. This  makes  the  connection  clear  and  direct.  The 
Flood  and  the  (  declination  of  the  heavenly  bodies  revolving 
round  the  earth'  are  at  once  brought  into  a  true  historic 
relation. 

"  In  like  manner,  in  the  Bundahish,  in  the  first  five 
chapters,  and  in  the  Zad  Sparam's  paraphrase  of  the  same,  it 
is  stated  that  during  the  first  three  thousand  years,  before  the 
incoming  of  the  Evil  One,  { the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  stood 
still,'  but  as  soon  as  the  Destroyer  of  the  good  creation  came 
he  assaulted  and  deranged  the  sky,  as  well  as  the  earth  and 
sea.  And,  remarkably  enough,  it  is  stated  that  as  a  result 
of  this  assault  the  Evil  One  mastered  as  much  as  f  one  third 
of  the  sky '  and  overspread  it  with  darkness.  Moreover,  in 
the  thirtieth  chapter,  in  giving  a  prophetic  account  to  the 
final  restoration  of  the  material  world  to  its  primeval  state, 
there  seems  to  be  an  allusion  in  verse  thirty-two  to  a  neces- 
sary resetting  or  readjustment  of  the  celestial  vault  by  the 
hand  of  its  Creator."  15 

The  sum  and  substance  of  this  matter  is  that  the  winged 
sun  was  worshiped  practically  everywhere.  F.  Max  Miiller 
says  in  the  Second  Series  of  Auld  Lang  Syne :  "  One  of  the 
most  intelligible  names  given  to  the  sun  was  Asva,  the  racer, 
or  Dadhikravan  or  Ya^'n,  horse.  And  while  at  one  time  the 
sun  was  a  racer,  at  another  the  sun  was  conceived  as  ap- 
proaching men  and  standing  on  a  golden  chariot  which  was 
drawn  by  horses,  as  in  Greek  mythology.  Thus  we  read, 
Kig-Veda  i,  35,  2:  '  The  god  Savitn  (the  sun),  approaching 
on  the  dark-blue  sky,  sustaining  mortals  and  immortals, 
comes  on  his  golden  chariot,  beholding  all  the  worlds.'  "  To 
us  this  quotation  from  the  Veda  is  a  description  of  the 

""Paradise  Found,"  pp.  195-196;  West,  "  Pahlavi  Texts,"  pt.  i, 
p.  129. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  231 

solar  orb  shining  through  the  dark-blue  vault,  the  abode  of 
gods  and  demigods.  Miiller  catches  the  echo  from  the  older 
thought,  which  called  the  shining  canopy  the  sun  or  racer. 
Both  Hesiod  and  Homer  testify  that  the  solar-car  was  drawn 
by  winged  steeds.  The  Hindus  say  that  their  sun  was  en- 
dowed with  horses  that  were  very  fast.  The  people  of  the 
olden  times  saw  these  flying  steeds,  such  as  Pegasus,  and  so 
came  to  worship  the  swift  or  winged  one  (sometimes  plural), 
praising  heaven  for  their  wondrous  deeds.  The  wings 
attached  to  the  glowing  golden  sun  of  Assyria  and  Egypt 
were  for  rapid  flight  In  North  America  the  sun  was  called 
a  hare;  afterwards,  as  the  swift  became  slow,  the  lame  hare 
became  the  sun  emblem.  Rapid  suns  or  horses  were  flying 
canopies  and  were  also  called  chariots;  when  they  reflected 
the  sunlight  they  appeared  to  be  on  fire.  So  Phrebus  lashed 
his  steeds  of  fire  and  rushed  upon  the  very  wings  of  the  wind. 
Again,  Phaeton  drove  the  coursers  of  the  sun,  but  as  he  drove 
them  a  fearful  change  seemed  to  be  impending.  The  atmos- 
phere became  sultry  and  almost  unbearable  as  a  result  of  the 
settling  down  of  the  sweltering  vapor  belt.  This  made  the 
world  below  seem  as  though  it  were  lost  in  fire.  The  lower- 
ing heavens  also  caught  a  fire-glow  from  the  true  sun,  and 
heaven  and  earth  appeared  to  be  in  one  blaze.  The  Storm- 
King,  roused  by  these  conditions,  brought  to  his  aid  Jove  the 
'  Thunderer,'  who  hurled  his  bolts  at  the  luckless  Phaeton, 
and  the  whole  war  of  the  vapors  was  fought  o'er  again: 

Then  headlong  falling,  with  his  hair  on  fire, 
Poor  Phaeton  marked  the  heavens  as  a  star. 

It  is  further  recorded  that  all  the  gods  were  frightened, 
and  that  the  rivers  shrank.  All  the  world  felt  that  a  change 
was  coming.  Yet  through  this  terror  wisdom  was  brought 
down  to  man,  the  Delphic  oracle  had  spoken,  and  in  the  sight 
of  all  the  end  was  evidently  near  at  hand,  for  though  Apollo, 
Phaeton's  own  father,  regained  possession  of  his  steeds  and 


232  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

by  accelerating  the  speed  16  seemed  to  be  driving  the  chariot 
of  the  sun  along  its  proper  course,  yet,  as  we  have  said,  it 
was  only  for  a  time.  The  Delphic  oracle  had  spoken. 

These  remarks  on  the  slowing  up  of  the  speed  with  which 
the  canopy  revolved  brings  to  our  attention  once  more 
Typhon,  the  Egyptian  canopy.  Typhon  personified  was  also 
a  character  in  Grecian  mythology.  He  and  Echidna,  who 

16  The  substance  of  the  ring-belt  possessed  energy  on  account  of  its 
situation,  for  the  attraction  of  the  earth  was  capable  of  doing  work. 
The  further  the  ring-belt  was  from  the  earth  the  larger  was  the  quantity 
of  energy  that  it  possessed  from  this  cause.  But  it  also  possessed 
another  kind  of  energy,  which  was  due  to  its  velocity.  The  further 
the  ring  was  from  the  earth  the  smaller  was  this  velocity  and  the 
smaller  was  the  quantity  of  energy  possessed  from  this  cause.  If  we 
-unite  the  two  forces  we  find  that  the  result  may  be  expressed  in  the 
following  manner:  When  the  ring-belt  revolved  round  the  earth  the 
total  energy  of  the  system  when  added  to  the  reciprocal  of  the  distance 
between  the  two  bodies  measured  by  a  proper  unit  of  length  was  the 
same  for  all  distances  between  them.  This  shows  the  connection  between 
the  energy  and  the  distance.  Thus  we  see  that  when  the  orbit  of  the 
ring-belt  decreased,  the  energy  of  the  system  decreased  also.  The 
moment  of  momentum  of  any  such  system  is  proportional  to  the  square 
root  of  the  distance  of  the  two  bodies.  When  the  distance  between  the 
ring  and  the  earth  lessened  the  moment  of  momentum  remained  constant. 
In  other  words,  the  more  the  system  contracted  the  faster  it  revolved. 
This  acceleration  was  the  result  of  what  is  known  to  us  as  the  law 
of  the  conservation  of  moment  of  momentum. 

"  The  apparent  anomaly  of  accounting  for  an  accelerative  effect 
by  a  retarding  cause  disappears  when  it  is  considered  that  any  check  to 
the  motion  of  bodies  revolving  round  a  centre  of  attraction  causes  them 
to  draw  closer  to  it,  thus  shortening  their  periods  and  quickening  their 
circulation."  Agnes  M.  Clerke,  "History  of  Astronomy  During  the 
Nineteenth  Century,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  115-116. 

The  late  James  E.  Keeler,  Director  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  proved 
by  his  observations  with  the  spectroscope  in  1895,  that  Saturn's  rings 
rotate.  According  to  the  undulatory  theory,  light  consists  of  a  series 
of  waves;  the  spectroscope  enables  us  to  measure  and  count  these,  and 
if  we  find  on  counting  them  that  there  are  too  many,  we  know  that  the 
source  from  which  the  light  comes  is  approaching,  but  on  the  other 
hand,  if  the  number  is  too  few,  then  we  know  that  it  is  receding. 
Keeler  proved  that  one  side  of  Saturn's  rings  were  approaching  and  the 
other  receding.  He  also  proved  that  the  inner  edge  of  each  ring 
rotates  faster  than  the  outer. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  233 

was  half  a  maid  and  half  a  serpent,  and  withal  a  bloodthirsty- 
wench,  had  a  child,  the  Sphinx,  who  was  also  half  woman 
and  half  lion,  mild  jet  fierce.  The  Grecian  beast,  unlike  the 
Egyptian  Sphinx,  had  wings.  This  shows  that  it  was  a 
flying  canopy.  The  Thebans  suffered  in  its  dreadful  maw 
and  asked  the  question,  Will  it  ever  die  ?  They  saw  a  change 
coming  over  it,  hence  it  seemed  a  riddle.  What  would  be 
the  end  ?  The  mild  conditions  were  passing  away.  (Edipus, 
or  swollen-foot,  the  whirling  cloud-belt,  was  seen  to  drop  and 
go  slower  and  slower.  As  youth  needs  another  prop  in  old 
age,  so  the  canopy  needed  something.  Longevity,  which  had 
been  man's  portion  under  the  greenhouse  roof,  now  ended, 
and  the  ancients  said  the  cause  was  that  the  Sphinx,  or 
canopy,  had  cast  herself  upon  a  rock.  (Edipus  thus  killed 
his  father;  that  is,  he  stopped  the  upper  or  revolving  ring; 
also  his  mother  and  his  wife,  who  were  also  sky-forms. 

Tragic  as  this  ending  was,  the  story  is  full  of  beautiful 
vapor-belt  canopy  lore.  For  instance,  in  his  old  age,  (Edipus 
was  comforted  by  the  presence  of  his  daughter,  Antigone, 
she  who  was  born  opposite,  the  pale  light  that  appears  over 
against  the  darkening  canopy  gone  blind.  His  sons  are  said 
to  have  disputed  for  the  throne  of  Thebes,  which  was  origi- 
nally a  walled  city  of  the  canopy.  Undoubtedly  the  Egyptian 
and  Grecian  cities  were  named  for  it.17  Seven  heroes  warred 


"Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  the  names  attached  to  regions 
and  personified  appearances  in  the  sky  were  transferred  by  the  ancients 
to  terrestrial  localities.  For  instance,  to  locate  the  original  Olympus 
as  a  many-peaked  earthly  mountain  would  simply  embarrass  the  imag- 
ination. How  could  the  following  vivid  picture  be  explained? 

0  evil-minded  Juno,  full  of  guile! 

Thy  arts  have  made  the  noble  Hector  leave 
The  combat,  and  have  forced  his  troops  to  flee. 

1  know  not  whether  't  were  not  well  that  thou 
Shouldst  taste  the  fruit  of  thy  pernicious  wiles, 
Chastised  by  me  with  stripes.     Dost  thou  forget 
When  thou  didst  swing  suspended,  and  I  tied 
Two  anvils  to  thy  feet,  and  bound  a  chain 


234,  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

against  its  mighty  gate,  but  the  battle  ended  without  their 
taking  it.  However,  there  soon  after  came  a  day  when  the 
great  city  fell  and  perished  as  all  sky  scenes  had  to  in  those 
strenuous  days.  The  change  arrived  and  slow-foot  was  the 
cause. 

For  the  same  reason  that  (Edipus  was  called  swollen- 
foot,  Vulcan  was  made  lame,  and  as  the  canopy  of  vapor 
dissipated  its  fire  went  out;  thus  he  also,  as  the  story  goes, 
fell  from  heaven. 

The  slowing  of  the  speed  of  the  canopy  made  it  appear 
on  earth  that  it  was  actually  going  backwards,  which  fact  is 
recorded  in  many  myths;  thus  it  is  said  that  Cacus,  when 
he  stole  the  oxen  of  Geryon,  dragged  them  backward  by  their 
tails  to  his  cave. 

"Achilles  was  invulnerable  in  all  parts  save  the  heel. 
This  hero  seems  indubitably  to  have  been  the  solar  deity, 
and,  as  in  the  case  of  Baldur,  Siegfried,  Eustam,  etc.,  could 
be  wounded  only  in  one  place.  The  heel  here  is  symbolic, 
indicating  that  he  is  vulnerable  only  from  behind.  So  Baldur 
falls  struck  by  a  dart  from  his  blind  brother  Hb'dur  (the  dark- 
ness). Siegfried  is  wounded  by  Hagene  (the  thorn)  in  the 
spot  between  his  shoulders  where  the  broad  linden  leaf  had 
stuck  when  he  was  bathing  himself  in  the  dragon's  blood,  by 
which  he  was  made  in  all  other  points  invulnerable. 

"  So  in  the  Algonquin  myth  of  the  Summer-maker  who 
had  broken  through  the  sky  into  the  heaven-land  beyond,  and 
brought  down  to  earth  the  warm  winds,  the  birds,  and  the 


Of  gold  that  none  could  break  around  thy  wrists? 
Then  didst  thou  hang  in  air  amid  the  clouds, 
And  all  the  gods  of  high  Olympus  saw 
With  pity.     They  stood  near,  but  none  of  them 
Were  able  to  release  thee.     Whoso  came 
Within  my  reach  I  seized,  and  hurled  him  o'er 
Heaven's  threshold,  and  he  fell  upon  the  earth 
Scarce  breathing. 
Bryant's  Homer's  Iliad,  bk.  xv,  19  ff. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  235 

summer,  it  is  said  that,  pursued  by  the  dwellers  in  heaven, 
he  was  at  last  wounded  by  their  arrows  in  his  one  vulnerable 
spot,  viz.,  in  the  tip  of  the  tail.  The  shining  Manitu  and 
Kwasind  also  could  be  wounded  only  in  one  place,  in  the 
scalp  or  the  crown  of  the  head."  18 

Ovid  tells  us  that  a  day  was  lost.  The  standing  still  of 
the  sun  (Joshua  x)  is  a  like  reminiscence:  the  shiner  actually 
did  appear  to  stand  still.  It  is  significant  that  the  record  is 
accompanied  by  a  description  of  the  falling  stones,  for  of 
necessity  a  canopy  reaching  this  stage  must  begin  to  break 
up.  This  is  the  record: 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  fled  from  before  Israel, 
and  were  in  the  going  down  to  Beth-horon,  that  the  Lord  cast 
down  great  stones  from  heaven  upon  them  unto  Azekah,  and 
they  died:  they  were  more  which  died  with  hailstones  than 
they  whom  the  children  of  Israel  slew  with  the  sword.  *  *  * 

"  And  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed,  until  the 
people  had  avenged  themselves  upon  their  enemies.  Is  not 
this  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher?  So  the  sun  stood  still 
in  the  midst  of  heaven,  and  hasted  not  to  go  down  about  a 
whole  day. 

"  And  there  was  no  day  like  that  before  it  or  after  it."  19 
Jasher  was  probably  another  Zeus;  a  great  dim  memory  of 
a  terrible  time  was  no  doubt  bound  up  in  this  lost  volume. 
Another  account  of  falling  material  is  found  in  Deut.  xxviii : 
23-24,  29,  as  follows  : 

"  Thy  heaven  that  is  over  thy  head  shall  be  brass,  and 
the  earth  that  is  under  thee  shall  be  iron.  The  Lord  shall 
make  the  rain  of  thy  land  powder  and  dust:  from  heaven 
shall  it  come  down  upon  thee,  until  thou  be  destroyed. 
*  *  *  And  thou  shalt  grope  at  noonday,  as  the  blind 
gropeth  in  darkness." 


M  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  p.  55. 
19  Joshua  x:ll,  12,  14. 


236  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

We  have  now  seen  that  the  hope  of  the  Egyptians  was 
stayed  upon  '  Osiris  Found.'  When  he  was  dead  Typhon 
ruled  the  sky,  and  the  Grecian  myth  has  shown  us  that  his 
child  was  the  Sphinx. 

Yea,  Egypt  is  the  grave-yard  of  the  past, 
And  here  's  the  Sphinx  with  his  cold  stony  lips 
Touched  by  the  finger  of  Dame  Silence,  who 
Rules  o'er  this  land  of  ruin  and  of  dust. 

Plainly  a  sphinx-temple  was  a  place  wherein  to  worship 
the  cold  spirit  of  the  falling  vapor-sky.  The  great  sphinx  at 
Ghizeh  faces  to  the  east,  as  though  to  catch  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  day : 

In  eagerness  he  gazes  like  to  one 

That's  guessing  of  the  future  and  expects 

An  end  that's  coming,  and  a  new-born  sun. 

Her  head  a  woman,  for  she  was  quite  mild, 

His  tail  a  lion,  for  he  turned  out  fierce 

As  nearer  to  the  earth  he  flew  in  death. 

And  by  him  stands  the  three  great  pyramids, 

Memorials  of  the  day  of  stablished  things — 

The  shadow  of  the  turning  earth  upon,20 

A  canopy  which  seemed  forever  fixed. 

A  cloudy  mountain  which  received  its  light 

At  night-time  from  beneath;  where  dwell  the  shades; 

From  the  dead  sun,  from  the  great  under-world. 

At  midnight  this  division  of  the  rays 

By  the  earth's  shadow  cast  a  cone-like  form, 

A  pyramid  athwart  the  darkened  sky. 

"  The  Hellenic  and  Eoman  myths  concerning  the  '  World- 
mountain  '  were  numerous,  but  in  later  times  not  a  little 
confused,  as  Ideler  has  learnedly  shown.  By  some,  as  for 
example  Aristotle,  it  was  identified  with  the  Caucasus,  and 
it  was  asserted  that  its  height  was  so  prodigious  that  after 
sunset  its  head  was  illuminated  a  third  part  of  the  night,  and 
again  a  third  part  before  the  rising  of  the  sun  in  the  morning. 
This  identification  explains  the  later  legend,  according  to 
which,  in  order  to  prove  his  rightful  lordship  of  the  world, 

80  James  i:17. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  237 

Alexander  the  Great  plucked  'the  shadowless  lance'  (the 
earth's  axis)  out  of  the  topmost  peak  of  the  Taurus  Moun- 
tains. More  commonly  the  mount  is  called  Atlas,  or  the 
Atlantic  mountain.  Proclus,  quoting  Heraclitus,  says  of  it: 
*  Its  magnitude  is  such  that  it  touches  the  ether  and  casts  a 
shadow  of  five  thousand  stadia  in  length.  From  the  ninth 
hour  of  the  day  the  sun  is  concealed  by  it,  even  to  his  perfect 
demersion  under  the  earth."  21 

This  shadow-mountain,  which  only  appeared  at  night, 
seemed  to  stand  in  the  inverted  heavens;  to  the  right  and 
left  of  its  cone  were  two  great  wings  of  light,  with  their 
apexes  downward. 

"Draw  me  (the  nocturnal  sun),  infernal  ones!     .     .     . 

"  Retreat  towards  the  eastern  heavens,  towards  the  dwell- 
ings which  support  Sar,  that  mysterious  mountain  that 
spreads  light  among  the  gods  (or,  that  I  may  spread  light 
among  the  gods?),  who  receive  me  when  I  go  forth  from 
amongst  you,  from  the  retreat." 

"  To  the  inverted  infernal  mountain  seem  to  apply  the 
expressions  in  chapter  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  e  Book 
of  the  Dead:' " 

We  have  said  that  it  is  not  likely  that  the  ancients,  unac- 
quainted with  Newton's  law  of  gravitation,  could  have  pic- 
tured a  pendent  under-surf ace  to  the  earth,  so  it  follows  that 
the  midnight  appearance  of  the  mountain  is  here  referred  to. 

"  Oh,  the  very  tall  Hill  in  Hades !  The  heaven  rests  upon 
it.  There  is  a  snake  or  dragon  upon  it:  Sati  is  his  name," 
etc.  The  presence  of  the  snake  and  the  fact  that  heaven  rests 
on  the  Hill  of  Hades  confirms  our  supposition  that  a  world 
under  the  horizon  was  not  dreamt  of. 

"  In  another  chapter  of  the  same  book  a  place  is  spoken 
of  as  '  the  inverted  precinct,  which  place  is  Hades.' "  As 
heaven,  according  to  the  text  cited  above,  rests  on  Hades,  the 
locality  of  this  precinct  is  fixed  in  the  inverted  night-sky. 

21  William  F.  Warren,  "Paradise  Found,"  pp.  135-136. 


238  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

The  translator  of  another  text,  called  the  '  Book  of  Hades/ 
describes  a  (  pendent  mountain/  which  can  hardly  be  any- 
thing other  than  Ap-en-to,  the  inverted  mountain  of  Hades. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  expression  '  underworld '  is  con- 
tinually used  in  the  writings  and  lore  of  the  ancients,  so 
that  beyond  question  the  great  inverted  wings  of  light  shin- 
ing up  from  below  gave  the  peoples  of  those  days  an  inkling 
of  a  region  lying  beneath.  Our  contention  is  that  this  place 
is  not  the  mythological  abode  of  the  shades.  The  following 
shows  the  confused  notions  relative  these  two  regions,  the 
night-mountain,  Hades,  and  the  true  underworld. 

"  The  god  advancing  in  a  reversed  position  "  (in  a  certain 
New  Zealand  legend)  "  is  the  sun  in  the  Underworld.  The 
image  exactly  accords  with  an  Egyptian  scene  of  the  sun 
passing  through  Hades,  where  we  see  the  twelve  gods  of  the 
earth,  or  the  lower  domain  of  night,  marching  towards  a 
mountain  turned  upside  down,  and  two  typical  personages 
are  also  turned  upside  down.  This  is  an  illustration  of  the 
passage  of  the  sun  through  the  Underworld.  The  reversed 
on  the  same  monument  are  the  dead.  Thus  the  Osirified 
deceased,  who  had  attained  the  second  life,  in  the  Ritual, 
says  exultingly,  '  I  do  not  walk  upon  my  head.'  The  dead, 
as  the  Akhu,  are  the  spirits,  and  the  Atua  (of  the  New 
Zealand  legend)  is  a  spirit  who  comes  walking  upside  down. 
Massey  elsewhere  states  that  the  earth  'was  considered  flat 
by  the  first  myth-makers,'  who  in  his  scheme  appear  to  have 
been  Egyptians."  22  A  flat  world  does  not  bring  any  support 
to  those  who  believe  Hades  was  located  in  the  nether  hemi- 
sphere. In  the  '  Eitual '  the  Osirified  dead  says,  "  I  do  not 
walk  upon  my  head."  Had  a  pendent  world  been  dreamt  of, 
everything  would  have  been  considered  upside  down. 

In  Genesis  i :  16  there  are  two  great  lights  mentioned ; 
the  greater  ruled  the  day  and  the  lesser  the  night.  Egyptian 

™IUd.,  pp.   124,   125,   126.     "Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  x,  p.  88. 
"  The  Natural  Genesis,"  London,  1883,  vol.  i,  p.  529. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  239 

mythology  is  full  of  references  to  the  night-time  as  a  time 

of  shade: 

A  weird  a  fearful  time,  those  hours  of  night, 
With  spook-like  spectres  shivering  in  the  sky, 
The  canopy  a  sheeted  envelope, 
Ghosts  and  hobgoblins  drifting  in  mid-air, 
The  ka  or  double  visiting  the  tomb. 

The  shadow,  or  dark  mountain,  seemed  much  higher  at 
night,  and  as  its  mass  seemed  to  rise  out  of  the  realm  of 
shades,  it  was  only  a  step  for  the  ancients  to  associate  it  with 
the  dead,  hence  when  they  made  patterns  of  it,  these  pyra- 
mids or  likenesses  naturally  became  tombs.  The  chambers, 
built  into  them,  wherein  the  withered  mummies  awaited  the 
coming  back  of  their  ka,  were  simply  imitations  of  the  halls 
wherein  the  dead  sun  hid  himself  in  the  dismal  mountain. 
We  erect  memorials  in  our  graveyards  to-day  in  the  shape 
of  broken  columns  or  shafts,  which  signify  to  us  a  life  cut 
short  by  death.  The  pyramids  suggested  to  the  ancients 
pretty  much  the  same  thought,  hence  they  built  them  over 
the  chambers  of  their  dead. 

The  same  rectangular  arrangement  of  temples  which  pre- 
vailed in  Egypt  held  also  in  Chaldea.  They  lifted  their  eyes 
to  the  mountain  in  the  sky  '  the  Father  of  Countries/  and 
imagined  it  the  abode  of  the  gods,  the  future  home  of  every 
great  and  good  man,  '  a  land  with  a  silver  sky.'  The  story 
of  the  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel  is  the  story  of  an  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  people  to  get  into  this  home,  as  it  were, 
surreptitiously.  In  the  New  World  there  were  similar  tales. 
Donnelly  says: 

"  There  is  also  a  clearly  established  legend  which  singu- 
larly resembles  the  Bible  record  of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 

"Father  Duran,  in  his  MS.  ' Historia  Antiqua  de  la 
Nueva  Espanaf  A.  D.  1585,  quotes  from  the  lips  of  a  native 
of  Oholula,  over  one  hundred  years  old,  a  version  of  the 
legend  as  to  the  building  of  the  great  pyramid  of  Cholula. 
It  is  as  follows : 


240  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  In  the  beginning,  before  the  light  of  the  sun  had  been 
created,  this  land  (Cholula)  was  in  obscurity  and  darkness, 
and  void  of  any  created  thing;  all  was  a  plain,  without  hill 
or  elevation,  encircled  in  every  part  by  water,  without  trees 
or  created  thing;  and  immediately  after  the  light  and  the 
sun  arose  in  the  east  there  appeared  gigantic  men  of  deformed 
stature  and  possessed  the  land,  and,  desiring  to  see  the  nativ- 
ity of  the  sun,  as  well  as  his  Occident,  proposed  to  go  and 
seek  them.  Dividing  themselves  into  two  parties,  some  jour- 
neyed to  the  west  and  others  toward  the  east ;  these  travelled 
until  the  sea  cut  their  road,  whereupon  they  determined  to 
return  to  the  place  from  which  they  started,  and,  arriving  at 
this  place  (Cholula),  not  finding  the  means  of  reaching  the 
sun,  enamoured  of  his  light  and  beauty,  they  determined  to 
build  a  tower  so  high  that  its  summit  should  reach  the  sky. 
Having  collected  materials  for  the  purpose,  they  found  a 
very  adhesive  clay  and  bitumen,  with  which  they  speedily 
commenced  to  build  the  tower;  and,  having  reared  it  to  the 
greatest  possible  altitude,  so  that  they  say  it  reached  to  the 
sky,  the  Lord  of  the  Heavens,  enraged,  said  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  sky,  '  Have  you  observed  how  they  of  the  earth  have 
built  a  high  and  haughty  tower  to  mount  hither,  being 
enamoured  of  the  light  of  the  sun  and  his  beauty?  Come 
and  confound  them,  because  it  is  not  right  that  they  of  the 
earth,  living  in  the  flesh,  should  mingle  with  us.'  Imme- 
diately the  inhabitants  of  the  sky  sallied  forth  like  flashes  of 
lightning;  they  destroyed  the  edifice,  and  divided  and  scat- 
tered its  builders  to  all  parts  of  the  earth."  23 

Another  enigma  of  the  pyramids  is  the  fact  that  they  are 
usually  orientated  roughly  according  to  the  cardinal  points. 
However,  when  we  consider  the  evidence  that  their  builders 
naturally  followed  the  design  in  the  heavens,  this  result  is 
logical. 


28 Ignatius  Donnelly,  "Atlantis/'  21st  ed.,  pp.  200-201. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  241 

The  fact  that  the  four  faces  do  not  exactly  conform  to 
the  cardinal  points  has  been  set  down  as  bad  management  or 
neglect  on  the  part  of  the  builders,  but  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  they  built  according  to  the  pattern  in  the  sky,  and 
that  they  viewed  this  pattern  from  various  angles  and  at 
various  stages  of  its  collapse,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  accusa- 
tion is  unjust.  The  oldest  of  the  pyramids,  as  shown  by  the 
texts,  is  located  north  of  Abydos.  It  belonged  to  Sneferu 
and  was  erected  in  the  Fourth  Dynasty;  the  latest  belonged 
to  the  princes  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty.  24  The  construction 
of  these  monuments  was  therefore  a  continuous  work,  lasting 
some  thirteen  or  fourteen  centuries.  During  this  long  period 
the  orientation  of  the  cloud-mountain,  which  was  ever  drift- 
ing northwards,  must  have  varied  considerable.  Tombs 
known  as  mastabas,  which  conveyed  the  same  idea  as  the 
pyramids,  were  built  before  the  Fourth  Dynasty.  Their 
angle  is  75°  and  the  pyramid  angle  from  50°  to  55°. 

Piazza  Smyth  contended  that  the  angles  of  the*  Great 
Pyramid  of  Cheops  contain  factors  from  which  can  be  cal- 
culated the  distance  of  the  sun  from  our  earth.  Unwittingly, 
if  the  ancient  builders  built  true,  to  their  model,  this-  data 
has  been  handed  down  to  us. 

Another  remarkable  piece  of  testimony  from  this  ancient 
pile  at  Ghizeh  is  found  in  the  fact  that  if  one  should  go  down 
the  entrance  passageway  and  then  turn  around  and  look  out 
he  would  find  himself  gazing  into  the  northern  sky,  which 
was  probably  the  only  spot  of  the  clear  blue  visible  at  the 
time  of  the  erection  of  this  great  monument.  Perhaps  Alpha 
Draconis,  which  was  then  (2170  B.  0.)  the  North  Star,  and 
which  was  a  very  distinguished  feature  of  the  polar-egg  or 
opening,  may  have  shone  right  down  this  passageway  when 

MG.  Maspero,   "Manual   of  Egyptian  Archaeology,"   trans.  Amelia 
B.  Edwards,  1895,  p.  132,  see  also  p.  140. 
16 


243  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  pyramid  was  built.  Be  this  as  it  may,  this  egg-shaped 
opening  is  recorded  in  the  myths  of  nearly  all  the  ancients. 
It  is  called  by  the  Greeks  "  Isles  of  the  Blessed." 

The  poets  have  mistaken  the  locality  of  this  sky-hole, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  they  naturally  associated  it  with  the 
sunset  glory.  We  say  naturally,  for  after  the  fall  of  the 
canopy  it  was  the  only  sky-scene  that  could  be  compared  to 
the  original  ruddy  isle  of  Erytheia,  on  which  the  bright  oxen 
(clouds)  of  Geryon  were  pastured.  It  was  the  isle  of  the 
Hesperides,  and  the  apples  were  the  stars  seen  in  its  clear 
expanse.  Job  draws  a  distinction  between  '  The  Island  of 
the  Innocent ?  and  the  other  countries  of  the  world  (xxii : 
30).  Ovid  draws  one  between  '  The  Earth '  and  the  rest  of 
the  globe.  Plainly  the  ancients  had  an  idea  that  terra  firma 
was  in  some  way  united  with  the  canopy. 

"  On  the-  western  margin,  of  the-  earth,  by  the  stream  of 
Ocean,  lay  a  happy  place  named  the  E-lysi-an  Plain,  whither 
mortals  favored  by  the  gods  were  transported  without  tasting 
of  death,  to  enjoy  an  immortality  of  bliss.  This  happy  region 
was  also  called  '  Fortunate  Fields '  and  the  '  Isles  of  the 
Blessed.' "  25 

They  need  not  the  moon  in  that  land  of  delight, 

They  need  not  the  pale,  pale  star; 
The  sun  is  bright,  by  day  and  night, 

Where  the  souls  of  the  blessed  are. 
They  till  not  the  ground,  they  plow  not  the  wave, 

They  labor  not,  never!  oh,  never! 
Not  a  tear  do  they  shed,  not  a  sigh  do-  they  heave ; 

They  are  happy  for  ever  and  ever !  * 

Wherever  pyramid  worship  is  found,  one  or  more  of  these 
features  is  in  evidence.  The  teocalli  of  Cholula  covers  more 
than  twice  the  ground-space  of  Cheops.  It  is  orientated,  and 
in  a  vast  hollow  chamber  under  the  structure-  was  found  two 
skeletons.  The  Mexican  pyramids  at  Cholula  and  at  Tula 
are  said  to  resemble  marvelously  certain  Assyrian  and  Chal- 


Bulfinch,  "  Age  of  Fable,"  Scott,  p.  3.       *  Pindar. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  343 

dean  temples.27  One  of  these  teocalli  glorified  Quetzalcoatl 
the  good  canopy  who  as  a  god  was  reputed  to  have  made 
flowers  grow  profusely.  Originally  Mexicans  offered  fruits 
and  flowers  to  him,  but  afterwards  his  nature  changed,  so  to 
propitiate  him  they  offered  human  sacrifices.  Quetzalcoatl 
reminds  the  investigator  of  the  prince  of  Tyrus,  the  covering 
cherub. 

The  Spaniards  also  found  two  pyramids  at  San  Juan 
Teotihuacan,  one  of  which  was  dedicated  to  the  sun  and  the 
other  to  the  moon,  but  evidence  was  found  that  an  older  cult 
had  been  superseded.  In  one  of  these  a  passageway  ter- 
minated in  two  small  pits  or  wells,  showing  that  they  were 
used  as  tombs.  Nearby  are  many  smaller  mounds.  The  two 
great  ones  are  orientated  east  and  west. 

The  great  pyramid  mound  of  the  Incas  on  the  banks  of 
the  Moche  River  is  800  feet  long  and  150  feet  high,  and  has 
preserved  up  to  this  time  the  secret  of  its  erection.  The 
Mound  Builders  have  left  similar  relics  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Continent.  In  western  Illinois,  at  about  the  centre  of 
the  river  flats  known  as  the  American  Bottom,  are  a  number 
of  mound-groups.  Cahokia,  a  truncated  pyramid,  is  the 
largest  individual  mound;  it  covers  over  fourteen  acres,  or 
more  than  is  covered  by  the  largest  Egyptian  Pyramid. 

"  The  great  mound  at  Seltzertown,  Mississippi,  is  of  such 
dimensions  as  almost  to  preclude  the  belief  of  its  artificial 
origin.  It  is  a  truncated  pyramid,  about  600  feet  long  and 
400  broad  at  its  base,  and  covering  nearly  six  acres  of  ground. 
It  is  placed  very  nearly  in  reference  to  the  cardinal  points, 
its  greater  length  being  east  and  west.  Its  height  is  forty 
feet,  accessible  by  a  graded  way  which  leads  to  a  platform  of 
four  acres  on  the  summit.  From  this  platform  rise  three 
conical  mounds,  one  at  each  end  and  one  in  the  centre.  Both 


"Prescott,  "Conquest  of  Mexico,"  book  iii,  ch.  vi.  Scientific 
American  Supplement,  No.  645.  Foster,  "  Prehistoric  Races  of  the 
United  States  of  America,"  6th  ed.,  p.  345. 


244  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

of  the  extreme  mounds  are  truncated,  the  westernmost  ris- 
ing to  the  height  of  forty  feet,  and  the  easternmost  is  some- 
what less."  28 

Our  author  goes  on  to  show  that  certain  of  these  mounds 
were  used  as  burial  places.  He  says :  "  The  temple-mounds 
were  also  used  as  sepulchres.  In  that  at  Seltzertown,  Dr. 
Dickeson  found  '  vast  quantities  of  human  skeletons/  and 
Mr.  Hill,  the  former  owner  of  the  Cahokia  Mound,  in  sink- 
ing a  well  on  its  platform,  encountered  charcoal  at  the  depth 
of  twenty-five  feet.  The  Grave  Creek  Mound,  which  is  in 
the  form  of  a  truncated  cone — the  flattened  area  on  top  being 
fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  therefore  coming  under  the  classi- 
fication of  temple-mounds — was  found  to  enclose  two  vaults 
originally  constructed  of  wood,  which  contained  human  skele- 
tons." 29 

"  The  Grave  Creek  Mound,  twelve  miles  below  Wheeling, 
in  West  Virginia,  is  the  most  notable  of  all  those  in  the  Ohio 
Valley. 

"  It  is  seventy  feet  in  height  by  nine  hundred  in  circum- 
ference, and  is  destitute  of  lines  of  circumvallation.  In  1838 
Mr.  A.  B.  Tomlinson,  the  owner  of  the  premises,  carried  a 
drift  along  the  original  surface  of  the  ground  to  the  centre 
of  the  mound,  and  sank  a  shaft  from  the  summit  to  intercept 
it.  '  At  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  feet/  he 
states,  in  a  pamphlet  published  after  the  completion  of  the 
exploration,  '  we  came  to  a  vault,  which  had  been  excavated 
before  the  mound  was  commenced,  eight  by  twelve  feet  and 
seven  in  depth.  Along  each  side  and  across  the  ends,  upright 
timbers  had  been  placed,  which  supported  timbers  thrown 
across  the  vault  as  a  ceiling.  These  timbers  were  covered 
with  loose  unhewn  stone,  common  to  the  neighborhood.  The 
timbers  had  rotted  and  had  tumbled  into  the  vault. 


*  J.  W.  Foster,  "  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States  of  America," 
6th  ed.,  p.  112. 

"Hid.,  pp.  186-187. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  245 

In  this  vault  were  two  human  skeletons,  one  of  which  had  no 
ornaments;  the  other  was  surrounded  by  six  hundred  and 
fifty  ivory  (shell)  beads,  and  an  ivory  (bone)  ornament,  six 
inches  long. 

"  In  sinking  the  shaft,  at  thirty-four  feet  above  the  first 
or  bottom  vault  a  similar  one  was  found,  enclosing  a  skeleton 
which  had  been  decorated  with  a  profusion  of  shell-beads, 
copper-rings,  and  plates  of  mica.'7  30 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  same  idea  of  death  was 
associated  with  the  dismal  cloud-mountain  by  the  Mexicans, 
Peruvians,  Mound  Builders,  and  Egyptians.  So  it  was  also 
in  Babylonia,  the  colossal  zikkurats  lifting  their  lofty  sum- 
mits in  honor  of  the  same  cloud-mountain. 

Herman  Y.  Hilprecht  says :  "  I  have  recently  found 
evidence  that,  like  the  Egyptian  pyramid,  the  Babylonian 
stage-tower  (or  step-pyramid)  without  doubt  was  viewed  in 
the  light  of  a  sepulchral  mound  erected  in  honor  of  a  god." 
Our  author  adds :  "  I  am  also  inclined  to  see  a  last  remi- 
niscence of  the  Babylonian  zikkurat  in  the  meftul,  the  char- 
acteristic watch-tower  and  defensive  bulwark  of  the  present 
Ma7 dan  tribes  of  Central  Babylonia."  31 

Daniel  G.  Brinton  tells  of  a  like  tower  built  by  the  lord 
of  Tezcuco,  which  to  our  minds  also  reflects  the  old  source 
of  inspiration.  Brinton  says :  "  Nezahutal  erected  a  temple 
nine  stories  high  to  represent  the  nine  heavens,  which  he 
dedicated  '  to  the  Unknown  God,  the  Cause  of  Causes.7  This 
temple,  he  ordained,  should  never  be  polluted  by  blood,  nor 
should  any  graven  image  ever  be  set  up  within  its 
precincts.77  32 

The  type  of  the  holy  cloud-mountain  was  reproduced  in 


80  IUd.,  pp.  190-191. 

81 "  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands  During  the  Nineteenth  Century/ 


p.  287. 

82 "  The  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  p.  73. 


246  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

every  palace  and  temple  of  Babylonia,33  sometimes  by  build- 
ing it  as  an  artificial  mound  with  trees  and  plants  watered 
from  above;  again,  on  a  larger  scale  by  the  zikkurat  or 
'  Mountain  Peak/  the  later  device  being  a  sort  of  pyramid  of 
three,  five,  or  seven  stages. 

"  One  of  these  is  the  zikkurat  to  Nin-girsu  at  Lagash, 
which  Gudea  describes  as  '  the  house  of  seven  divisions  of  the 
world ' ;  the  other,  the  tower  at  Uruk,  which  bore  the  name 
'  house  of  seven  zones.'  The  reference  in  both  cases  is,  as 
Jensen  has  shown,  to  the  seven  concentric  zones  into  which 
the  earth  was  divided  by  the  Babylonians.  It  is  a  conception 
that  we  encounter  in  India  and  Persia,  and  that  survives  in 
the  seven  '  climates  ?  into  which  the  world  was  divided  by 
Greek  and  Arabic  geographers.  It  seems  clear  that  this 
interpretation  of  the  number  seven  is  older  than  the  one 
which  identified  each  story  with  one  of  the  planets."  34 

This  leads  us  into  another  field  of  research,  and  in  pass- 
ing it  may  be  well  to  glance  at  the  significance  of  this  mys- 
tical number.  Jastrow  adds :  "  The  suggestion  is  worthy 
of  consideration  whether  the  name  '  seven  directions  of 
heaven  and  earth '  may  not  also  point  to  a  conception  of 
seven  zones  dividing  the  heavens  as  well  as  the  earth.  One 
is  reminded  of  the  f  seven '  heavens  of  Arabic  theology."  35 
One  is  also  reminded  of  the  seven  ropes  that  twirled  the  sky- 
mountain  of  the  Hindus. 

Heaped  were  the  mountains  in  heaps.  The  serpents  began  to  twine — 
There  were  seven  of  these  '  Fiery  Phantoms/  that  twirled  away  at  the 

line, 

Over  them  rushed  heaven's  ocean, — Anu  a  river  broad 
Which  flowed  round  this  world  of  ours,  around  where  the  monster  clawed. 


83  The  palaces  were  veritable  terrestrial  paradises.    The  name  shows 
the  origin,  for  paradise   (in  Sanskrit,  para  desa)   means  literally  high 
land. 

84  Jastrow,    "Keligion    of    Babylonia    and   Assyria,"    ch.    xxvi,    pp. 
619-620. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  247 

Ea,  alias  the  '  House  of  the  Waters,'  lived  in  this  ocean  vast, 
An  *  Exalted  Fish '  they  called  him,  in  the  story  of  Vishnu  cast. 

The  fact  that  this  great  mountain  always  turned  upon 
its  axis  in  an  easterly  course  is  probably  the  reason  why  the 
following  strange  passage  occurs  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead. 

It's  written  in  the  '  Ritual '— "  Retreat, 
Retreat,"  it  says,  "  Unto  the  eastern  heavens, 
Unto  the  dwellings  which  support  the  mount — 
That  great  mysterious  mountain  that  spreads  light 
Among  the  gods,"  high  in  the  northern  sky. 

Such  was  the  substance  of  the  direction  given  to  the 
dead  to  guide  them  on  their  skyward  journey  to  the  '  Blessed 
Land.'  In  the  pyramid  built  for  King  Teta  (about  3300 
B.  C.)  the  following  text  occurs:  "  Teta  comes  to  the  two 
heavens,  Teta  arrives  at  the  two  earths,  Teta  treads  upon 
the  herbage  growing  under  the  feet  of  Seb,  he  traverses  the 
road  of  Nu-t."  36 

The  mountain  chambers,  the  Hall  of  Two  Truths,  and 
Set  or  Seb,  the  verdant  earth,  are  all  depicted  before 
the  departed  Teta,  and  he  is  told  that  he  must  traverse  the 
road  of  ISTu-t;  that  is,  the  sky-road.  This  sky,  according  to 
some,  extended  overhead  like  an  immense  iron  ceiling,  and, 
according  to  others,  like  a  huge  shallow  vault.  For  this 
reason  "  iron,  like  many  other  things  in  Egypt,  was  pure  or 
impure  according  to  circumstances.  If  some  traditions  held 
it  up  to  odium  as  an  evil  thing,  and  stigmatized  it  as  the 
( bones  of  Typhon,'  other  traditions,  equally  venerable, 
affirmed  that  it  was  the  very  substance  of  the  canopy  of 
heaven.  So  authoritative  was  this  view,  that  iron  was  cur- 
rently known  as  '  Ba-en-pet/  or  the  celestial  metal."  37 

It  was  plain  even  to  the  ancients  that  such  a  sky  could  not 
remain  unsupported  in  space,  therefore  Nu-t  was  supposed 


"Scientific  American  Supplement  No.  1075. 

87 G.  Maspero,  "Manual  of  Egyptian  Archaeology,"  trans.  Amelia  B. 
Edwards,  1895,  p.  196. 


248  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

to  be  sustained  in  her  lofty  position  by  her  arms  and  legs. 
These  made  four  pillars;  accordingly  their  temples  were 
planned  to  illustrate  this  idea.  "  The  columns,  and  if  need- 
ful the  four  corners  of  the  chambers,  stood  for  the  pillars. 
The  roofj  vaulted  at  Abydos,  flat  elsewhere,  corresponded 
exactly  with  the  Egyptian  idea  of  the  sky.  Each  of  these 
parts  was,  therefore,  decorated  in  consonance  with  its  mean- 
ing. Those  next  to  the  ground  were  clothed  with  vegetation. 
The  bases  of  the  columns  were  surrounded  by  leaves."38 
The  vaulted  roof  sometimes  contained  stars.  At  others  ser- 
pents, the  various  names  of  which  are  '  Fire  Face/  '  Flaming 
Eye/  <  Evil  Eye/  etc.39 

The  Egyptians  kept  a  festival  to  commemorate  the  sus- 
pension of  the  sky  by  the  ancient  god  Ptah,  '  the  Opener/ 
who  was  venerated  as  creator  of  the  world.  J.  Norman 
Lockyer  says: 

"  About  5300  B.  C.  we  seem  almost  in  the  time  of  the 
divine  dynasties,  and  begin  to  understand  how  it  is  that  in 
the  old  traditions  Ptah  precedes  Ka  and  is  called  '  the  father 
of  the  beginnings,  and  the  creator  of  the  egg  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon.'  "  40  After  Ptah  came  the  great  Sun-god  Ka,  whose 
father  was  Nu  or  E"u-t.  Ka  waged  war  against  the  demon 
of  darkness  called  Apap  or  Apapi,  who  was  a  serpent.  He 
journeyed  over  Nu-t's  back,  traversed  over  the  road  of  Nu-t. 

This  Nu-t  is  represented  in  her  drawings  as  a  female 
figure  spanning  the  heavens,  her  finger-tips  touching  the  one 
horizon  and  her  toes  the  other.  !N"u-t,  like  all  the  canopies, 
was  the  (  mother  of  the  gods.7  In  the  Hindu  and  Babylonian 
myths  we  have  seen  that  the  vapor-belt  was  credited  with 
being  the  source  of  life  both  in  the  heavens  and  in  the  earth. 
The  canopy  diffused  the  solar  rays  and  diffusion  seems  to 


38  Ibid.,  p.  90.       mllid.,  p.  164. 

40 "The  Dawn  of  Astronomy,"  ch.  xxxi,  p.  318.  Brugsch,  "Religion 
und  Mythologie,"  p.  111.  Pierret,  " Salle  Historique  de  la  Galerie 
Egyptiewne"  (du  Louvre),  p.  199. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  249 

have  made  confusion,  for  with  each  new  aspect  of  light  a 
new  god  was  born.  Thus  the  list  was  ever  being  increased, 
and  yet,  after  all,  how  many  gods  were  there?  Many  were 
closely  related  and  many  more  may  be  proved  to  be  actually 
identical.  For  instance,  Hathor,  the  cow-headed  (i.e.,  cloud- 
headed)  was  worshiped  at  Denderah.  She  was  born  out  from 
and  in  the  cloud,  and  is  certainly  only  another  aspect  of  the 
arched  Nu-t.  She  also,  like  Nu-t,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
i  mother  of  all  living/  but  what  is  of  more  importance  is 
that  she  is  identified  with  Aphrodite  and  corresponds  to 
Jshtar,  and  some  enthusiasts  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  say 
that  her  cult  can  be  traced  in  the  worship  of  the  aborigines 
of  North  America,  but  this  similarity  is  only  a  witness  of  the 
common  phenomenon  personified  and  deified  both  in  the  east 
and  in  the  west.  As  Aphrodite  was  the  goddess  of  eternal 
light,  it  is  probable  that  Hathor  was  that  aspect  of  perpetual 
illumination  seen  in  Nu-t  and  which  the  Hindus  recorded  by 
saying  that  "  Agni  was  Yaruna  and  was  Indra  too." 

Sometimes  Nu-t  is  represented  double,  a  larger  stretching 
over  a  smaller  one.  The  outer  one  is  studded  with  stars. 
The  inner  one,  however,  is  plainly  a  band  of  water.  These 
wheels  within  wheels  suggest  a  firmament  above  and  below, 
and  they  show  us  the  evolutionary  process  by  which  it  came 
about  that  the  vapor-belt  was  looked  upon  as  the  '  mother.' 
Ascending  and  descending  on  E"u-t's  curved  back,  athwart 
the  vaulted  sky,  are  boats  containing  the  gods.  These,  of 
course,  were  shells  of  light  (halos)  surrounding  the  heavenly 
orbs. 

These  boats  or  halos  seen  ascending  and  descending  on 
Nu-t's  body  were  the  origin  of  many  customs  and  myths.  At 
first  baris  or  barks  sustained  on  the  priest's  shoulders  were 
carried  in  procession. 

In  these,  "  hidden  from  the  sight  of  every  profane  eye, 
were  supposed  to  be  stationed  those  renowned  gods  descended 
from  the  Yedic  Aria  upon  the  land  of  Kemi  at  successive  and 


250  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

unknown  epochs:  Ph-t-ah,  or  Agny,  meaning  fire;  Ph-Ra, 
an  equivalent  of  Re,  Ra,  Ri,  La,  El,  the  sun  (i.e.,  shiner)  ; 
Jom,  an  equivalent  of  Om,  Aom,  and  Homa;  Sevek,  i.e., 
Siva;  and  Asiri,  the  equivalent  of  Asura.  These  were  the 
Indian  deities  and  titles  with  which  the  analogy  of  the  Egyp- 
tian gods  and  goddesses  is  thus  indicated."41 

These  baris  also  contained  the  local  conceptions  of  the 
gods,  many  of  them  half  monster,  half  woman. 

Menes,  according  to  the  historical  record,  is  the  first  king 
of  the  first  dynasty.  He  was  reputed  to  be  "  the  successor 
of  Asiri,  the  son  and  god  of  the  dead ;  he  belongs  to  the  first 
Vedic  tradition,  like  the  Sanskrit  Manu,  son  of  the  Sun  and 
brother  of  the  Asura  Yama,  the  god  of  the  dead;  like  the 
Manes  of  Lydia,  son  of  Cronus ;  like  the  Cretan  Menos,  son 
of  Zeus;  the  Minyas  of  lolcus,  son  of  Titan,  and  the  Manus 
of  Germany,  son  of  Chaos."  42 

But  to  return  to  the  custom  of  taking  the  gods  around  in 
boats.  In  Egypt  the  display  naturally  sought  the  waters  of 
the  Nile,  and  as  the  whole  procedure  was  associated  with 
death,  it  was  not  long  before  funeral  rites  began  to  develop 
along  the  same  lines.  Thus  sacred  barks  were  built,  after 
the  model  of  the  bari,  in  which  the  mummy  was  conveyed  to 
its  last  resting  place,  the  idea  being  that  as  the  gods  floated 
in  boats  over  the  canopy-sea,  so  also  their  sacred  dead  were 
required  to  journey.  "  In  their  effort  to  restore  the  dead 
men  to  the  happy  island-home,  the  heavenly  land  beyond  the 
water,  the  Norsemen  actually  set  their  dead  heroes  afloat  in 
boats  on  the  open  ocean."  43  The  world  wide  conception 
being  that  the  canopy-sea  was  connected  with  the  terrestrial 
ocean.  The  island-home  refers  to  the  Isles  of  the  Blessed, 
the  egg-hole  of  the  north. 


41 F.  De  Lanoye,  "Wonders  of  Art  and  Archaeology  in  Egypt  3300 
Years  Ago,"  p.  78. 
"Ibid.,  p.  287. 
48 Poor,  "Sanskrit  and  Kindred  Literatures,"  pp.  371,  372. 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  251 

In  the  boat  in  which  the  sun-god  of  Egypt  took  his  daily 
ride  on  the  Nile,  a  shrine  was  placed  amidships,  which  was 
covered  with  a  veil  to  conceal  him  from  the  eyes  of  the 
spectators. 

Looking  at  the  original  diurnal  journey  of  the  sun  across 
the  canopy,  the  record  shows  that  he  was  at  one  time  lost,  as 
it  were,  in  the  folds  of  Apapi.  G.  Maspero  says :  "  After 
the  fifth  hour,  the  heavenly  ocean  became  a  vast  battle-field. 
The  gods  of  light  pursued,  captured,  and  bound  the  serpent 
Apapi,  and  at  the  twelfth  hour  they  strangled  him.  But  this 
triumph  was  not  of  long  duration.  Scarcely  had  the  sun 
achieved  this  victory  when  his  bark  was  borne  by  the  tide 
into  the  realm  of  the  night  hours."  44 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  this  custom  has  continued 
down  to  the  present  day,  and  it  is  instructive,  for  it  shows 
us  with  what  tenacity  an  idea  is  passed  from  one  generation 
to  another.  We  may  well  surmise  that  any  such  relics  sur- 
viving the  last  thousand  years  may  have  come  down  through 
indefinite  ages.  Two  illustrations  of  the  present-day  sur- 
vivals will  suffice.  The  khedive  of  Egypt  still  sends  to  Mecca 
as  an  annual  gift  a  tabernacle,  known  as  Mahmal,  that  pre- 
sents the  outline  of  a  ship.  We  find  the  other  illustration  in 
India.  Frank  S.  Dobbins  says: 

"  As  of  almost  all  the  gods,  Ganesha  (the  elephant  god) 
has  his  festivals,  when  the  people  come  together  in  great 
crowds  to  do  him  honor.  At  one  of  these  annual  festivals 
they  bring  forth  the  god  Ganesha,  place  him  in  a  boat,  and, 
accompanied  with  other  boats  containing  priests  and  musi- 
cians, they  row  up  and  down  the  Ganges.  The  great  crowds 
of  people  lining  the  shore  fill  the  air  with  their  shouts  and 
songs,  and  the  occasion  is  one  of  exuberant  joy."  4a 

Modified  by  art,  beautiful  stories  have  grown  from  the 

44 "Manual  of  Egyptian  Archaeology,"  trans.  Amelia  B.  Edwards, 
p.  164. 

""Gods  and  Deyils  of  Mankind,"  p.  269. 


252  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

same  myth.  '  Lohengrin  '  is  one  of  these.  With  a  few  alter- 
ations, we  give  it  as  told  by  Charles  De  B.  Mills.  He  tells 
us  that: 

"  Lohengrin  is  one  of  those  heroes,  half  unearthly,  who 
come,  men  know  not  whence,  and  are  first  seen  sleeping  in  a 
boat  upon  a  river.  Lohengrin  was  son  of  Percival,  and  he 
heard  once  the  peal  of  a  bell  far  away,  untouched  by  human 
hands,  in  the  temple  of  the  Grail  at  Montsalvatch.  That 
peal  was  a  signal  that  help  was  needed.  He  arose  and  was 
starting,  not  knowing  whither  he  should  go.  Foot  in  stirrup, 
ready  to  mount  his  horse,  he  saw  a  swan  on  the  river,  drawing 
a  ship  along.  '  Take  back  the  horse  to  its  stable/  said  he. 
'  I  will  go  with  the  bird,  whither  it  shall  lead.'  Five  days 
he  was  on  the  water,  drawn  in  his  boat  not  only,  but  supplied 
with  nourishment  by  the  faithful  bird.  At  the  end  of  this 
time,  they  came  where  the  lists  were  opened  by  Frederick 
Von  Telramund,  a  brave  knight,  who  would  fight  against  any 
champion  she  might  bring  forward  for  possession  of  Elsa  of 
Brabant,  who  had  refused  his  suit.  Lohengrin  undertook 
the  defense  of  the  Lady,  fought,  prevailed,  slew  Frederick, 
and  in  return  was  offered  her  hand  and  the  duchy.  He 
accepted  it  on  condition :  she  must  never  ask  his  race.  Hap- 
pily they  lived  together  for  a  time,  but  one  night,  piqued  with 
curiosity  and  stung  with  insinuations  and  reproaches  she 
had  heard,  she  did  put  the  fatal  question. 

"  Lohengrin  sorrowfully  called  his  children  together, 
kissed  them,  and  said :  e  Here  are  my  horn  and  my  sword, 
keep  them  carefully;  and  here,  my  wife,  is  the  ring  my 
mother  gave  me ;  never  part  with  it.'  At  break  of  day,  the 
swan  reappeared,  drawing  the  boat,  Lohengrin  reentered  and 
disappeared,  nevermore  to  return. 

"  This  story  ought  to  be  transparent  enough.  It  is  the 
reproduction  of  the  old,  old  tale,  the  prince  wedded  to  the 
dawn  (or,  rather,  the  sun  wedded  to  the  canopy,  for  it  seems 
that  the  original  myth  dealt  not  with  the  daily  occurrence 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHS  253 

but  with  the  yearly  phenomenon).  He  had  rescued  the 
maiden,  marries  her,  but  cannot  remain  with  her;  he  comes 
in  a  boat  (a  shell  of  light,  a  halo),  and  he  also  goes  in  a 
boat,  drawn  by  the  faithful  swan  that  swims  the  cerulean 
seas.  There  is  a  close  relation  of  this  tale  with  those  of 
Melusina,  of  Undine,  of  Pururavas  and  Urvasi,  Eros  and 
Psyche,  etc.  '  Lohengrin '  is  one  of  a  family  of  stories  cele- 
brating Knights  of  the  Swan."  46 

46 "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  91-93. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME 

News !  what  news  ?     Has  it  in  truth  then  ended, 

The  term  appointed  for  that  wondrous  sleep? 
Has  Earth  so  well  her  fairest  brood  defended 

Within  her  bosom?     Was  their  slumber  deep? 
Not  this  our  dreamless  rest  that  knows  no  waking, 

But  that  to  which  the  years  are  as  a  day? 
What!  are  they  coming  back,  their  prison  breaking, — 

These  gods  of  Homer's  chant,  of  Pindar's  lay? 

Olympia?    Yes,  strange  tidings  from  the  city 

Which  pious  mortals  builded,  stone  by  stone, 
For  those  old  gods  of  Hellas,  half  in  pity 

Of  their  storm-mantled  height  and  dwelling  lone, — 
Their  seat  upon  the  mountain  overhanging 

Where  Zeus  withdrew  behind  the  rolling  cloud, 
Where  crowned  Apollo  sang,  the  phorminx  twanging, 

And  at  Poseidon's  word  the  forests  bowed. 

Ay,  but  that  fated  day 
When  from  the  plain  Olympia  passed  awayj 
When  ceased  the  oracles,  and  long  unwept 
Amid  their  fanes  the  gods  deserted  fell, 
While  sacerdotal  ages,  as  they  slept, 
The  ruin  covered  well ! 1 

JUST  as  in  the  case  with  the  other  nations,  the  beings 
called  gods  by  the  Greeks  are  only  personifications  of  the 
powers  and  objects  of  nature,  and  the  legends  likewise  are 
only  representations  of  the  courses  of  nature  and  its 
operations. 

The  farther  back  the  myths  are  traced,  the  more  closely 
the  gods  become  associated  with  the  scenes  of  the  canopy. 
Thus  the  Greek  sky-god,  Zeus,  corresponds  to  the  Hindu  sky- 
god,  Dyaus.  The  word  is  derived  from  the  root '  dyu/  which 


'Stedman's  "News  From  Olympia.' 
254 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          255 

means  '  to  shine.'  He  was  the  '  Heaven  father '  called  by  the 
Hindus  Dyaus-pitar,  by  the  Romans  Diovis-pater  or  Jupiter, 
by  the  Greeks  Zeus-pater.  Uranus  means  i  the  coverer.'  His 
name  is  derived  from  the  root  '  var.'  He  is  identified  with 
the  Hindu  Varuna,  the  vault  of  heaven.2  Hera  comes  from 
the  Sanskrit  root  '  svar '  the  bright  sky.  Cannes,  half  man, 
half  fish,  was  an  Eastern  god,  the  Lord  of  Darkness.  His 
name  is  derived  from  the  Hindu  Anu.  Apollo  may  be 
derived  from  a  Sanskrit  form,  Apa-var-yan  or  Apa-val-yan, 
and  may  mean  (  one  who  opens  the  gate  of  the  sky.'  3  At 
some  remote  period,  probably,  the  ancestors  of  the  Greeks 
said :  "  The  one  who  opens  the  gate  of  the  sky  pursues  the 
burning  one  (Dahana)."  This  soon  assumed  the  form, 
Apollo  courted  Daphne  and  she  fled  from  him  and  was  turned 
into  a  laurel  tree.  The  significance  of  the  tree  in  mythology 
will  be  enlarged  upon  later  when  we  come  to  consider  the 
World-ash  of  Scandinavia. 

Some  other  scholars — Schroder,  for  instance- — think  that 
Apollo  is  derived  from  the  Yedic  Saparagenya,  an  epithet 
of  Agni.  This  again  brings  us  to  the  canopy,  as  Agni  was 
the  light  seen  in  the  great  world-blanket.  It  is  strange,  but 
the  theft  of  fire  seems  to  be  the  theme-root  in  both  cases. 

Herodotus  says :  "  Whence  each  of  the  gods  sprung, 
whether  they  existed  always,  and  of  what  form  they  were, 
was,  so  to  speak,  unknown  till  yesterday.  For  I  am  of 
opinion  that  Hesiod  and  Homer  lived  four  hundred  years 
before  my  time,  and  not  more,  and  these  were  they  who 
framed  a  theogony  for  the  Greeks,  and  gave  names  to  the 
gods,  and  assigned  to  them  honors  and  arts,  and  declared 
their  several  forms."  *  *  *  "  Indeed,  the  names  of 
almost  all  the  gods  came  from  Egypt  into  Greece;  for  that 
they  came  from  barbarians  I  find  on  inquiry  to  be  the  case ; 
and  I  think  they  chiefly  proceeded  from  Egypt."  4 

'Hopkins,  "Religions  of  India,"  pp.  166,  167. 

3  Max  Mtiller,  ii,  692-697.       4  B.  ii,  50,  53,  Gary's  translation. 


256  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

The  astronomical  systems  of  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Greeks  also  show  clearly  the  effects  of  a  common  origin,  the 
original  sky-canopy  ring  system.  "  F.  A.  Paley  aids  the 
imagination  of  his  readers  as  follows :  '  We  might  familiarly 
illustrate  the  Hesiodic  notion  of  the  flat  circular  earth  and 
the  convex  overarching  sky  by  a  circular  plate  with  a  hemi- 
spherical dish-cover  of  metal  placed  over  it  and  concealing  it. 
Above  the  cover  (which  is  supposed  to  rotate  on  an  axis) 
live  the  gods.  Bound  the  inner  concavity  is  the  path  of  the 
sun,  giving  light  to  the  earth  below."  5 

Aristotle  tells  plainly  that  the  sky  was  solid.  The  great 
philosopher  of  Stagia  said :  "  The  universe  is  a  fixed  point ; 
the  central  point  is  earth,  and  above  it  is  a  bounding  field." 
"  Stars,"  he  added,  "  are  fixed  to  it  like  studs."  Euclid  and 
Cicero  also  taught  that  the  stars  were  fixed  in  a  solid  sphere. 
The  astral  note  from  Egypt  comes  from  Claudius  Ptolemseus. 
His  '  Heavens  of  the  Spheres '  were  composed  of  nine  con- 
centric circles,  including  the  fire  ring.  All  of  which  were 
of  glass.  This  latter,  or  fire-ring,  seems  to  have  been  a  remi- 
niscence of  the  fire  or  sunlight  seen  in  the  old  canopy  when 
Agni  was  Yaruna  and  was  Indra  too.  It  was  located  nearer 
to  the  earth  than  any  of  the  other  spheres.  This  whole 
peculiar  astronomical  conception  undoubtedly  grew  out  of 
the  old  method  of  thought,  and  it  was  not  until  the  time  of 
Seneca  that  the  question  was  raised  against  it.  How  heret- 
ical the  following  must  have  sounded :  "  Is  the  sky  solid 
and  of  a  firm  and  compact  substance  ? "  They  had  always 
been  taught  that  it  was. 

In  connection  with  the  idea  of  concentric  rings,  it  is 
interesting  to  find  that  the  Finn  cosmogonists  actually  be- 
lieved that  the  world  was  one  huge  egg,  the  sky  the  shell,  and 
the  yolk  the  earth.  The  Norsemen  contended  that  the  sky 
was  Ymer's  skull,  the  earth  his  flesh,  and  the  rocks  his  bones. 


8 "The  Epics  of  Hesiod,   with  an  English   Commentary,"   London, 
1861,  p.  172. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          257 

It  is  significant  that  Ymer  seems  originally  to  have  meant 
the  sea — the  word  being  akin  to  the  Latin  mare.6  The 
Hindus  supposed  that  the  world  stood  on  a  turtle's  back. 
Ruskin  says :  "  The  tortoise  shell,  the  image  of  the  dappled 
concave  of  the  cloudy  sky."  Cooper  says :  "  With  reference 
to  the  turtle,  there  is  probability  in  the  view  that  the  name 
of  this  animal  was  first  given  as  a  symbol  of  the  world,  the 
upper  shell  representing  the  sky,  the  under  shell  the  earth, 
and  the  body  between  the  two  the  atmosphere."  7 

Between  the  shells  of  the  turtle  we  can  imagine  that 
Chaos  ~Nox  and  Darkness  reigned.  Erebus,  or  blackness, 
was  a  veritable  existence.  All  the  cosmogonies  begin  with 
this  '  Age  of  Darkness.'  Orpheus  says :  "  From  the  begin- 
ning the  gloomy  night  enveloped  and  obscured  all  things  that 
were  under  the  ether.  The  earth  was  invisible  on  account 
of  the  darkness,  but  the  light  broke  through  the  ether  and 
illuminated  the  earth." 

Sanchoniathon  was  a  Phosnician  and  only  fragments  of 
his  writings  survive.  He  tells  us  that  "  the  beginning  of  all 
things  was  a  condensed,  windy  air,  or  a  breeze  of  thick  air, 
and  a  chaos  turbid  and  black  as  Erebus.  Out  of  this  chaos 
was  generated  Mot,  which  some  call  Ilus,  but  others  the 
putrefaction  of  a  watery  mixture.  And  from  this  sprang  all 
the  seed  of  the  creation,  and  the  generation  of  the  universe. 
*  *  *  And  when  the  air  began  to  send  forth  light,  winds 
were  produced  and  clouds,  and  very  great  defluxions  and 
torrents  of  the  heavenly  waters." 

Berosus,  the  Babylonian  whose  records  have  been  pre- 
served in  the  temple  of  Belus,  says :  "  There  was  a  time  in 
which  there  existed  nothing  but  darkness  and  an  abyss  of 
waters,  wherein  resided  most  hideous  beings,  which  were  pro- 
duced of  a  twofold  principle." 


8  Cooper,  "  Serpent  Myths,"  p.  17. 

7  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  34,  35. 
17 


258  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  From  the  '  Laws  of  Menu/  of  the  Hindus,  we  learn  that 
the  universe  existed  at  first  in  darkness."  The  following  text 
is  taken  from  the  Vedas :  "  The  Supreme  Being  alone  ex- 
isted; afterward  there  was  universal  darkness;  next  the 
watery  ocean  was  produced  by  the  diffusion  of  virtue." 

The  Thlinkeets  of  British  Columbia  say :  "  Very  dark, 
damp,  and  chaotic  was  the  world  in  the  beginning;  nothing 
with  breath  or  body  moved  there  except  Yehl ;  in  the  likeness 
of  a  raven  he  brooded  over  the  mist;  his  black  winds  beat 
down  the  vast  confusion;  the  waters  went  back  before  him 
and  the  dry  land  appeared.  The  Thlinkeets  were  placed  on 
the  earth — though  how  or  when  does  not  exactly  appear — 
while  the  world  was  still  in  darkness,  and  without  sun,  moon, 
or  stars."  8 

Pythias,  in  the  early  times,  before  the  mariner's  compass 
was  invented,  coasted  from  Marseilles  to  the  Shetland  Isles. 
On  one  occasion,  when  he  returned,  he  declared  that  his 
progress  was  stopped  by  an  immense  black  clam  or  oyster, 
which  was  suspended  in  the  air.  And  he  further  declared 
that  if  any  ship  advanced  toward  it  it  would  be  swallowed 
up  in  its  gigantic  shell. 

In  the  Greek  cosmogony  Chaos  gave  way  to  Uranus,  the 
shining  canopy  or  coverer,  and  to  Pontus,  the  sky-ocean. 

It  is  recorded  of  Uranus  that  he  hated  all  his  children, 
and  directly  after  their  birth  he  placed  them  under  the 
Tartarian  pall;  that  is,  he  hid  them  in  darkness.  Cronus 
then  dethroned  him,  the  new  forms  supplanting  the  old.  But 
in  turn  he  did  even  worse  by  his  offspring,  for  it  is  said  that 
he  devoured  the  first  five.  In  order  to  save  the  sixth,  Rhea, 
his  wife,  "  succeeded  in  duping  her  husband  by  giving  him  a 
stone  (perhaps  rudely  hewn  into  the  figure  of  an  infant) 
wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes,  which  he  swallowed,  believing 
he  had  got  rid  of  another  danger. 

'Bancroft,  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  98.  Ignatius  Donnelly, 
"  Ragnarok,"  pp.  208,  209,  213. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          259 

"  While  the  husband  was  being  deceived  in  this  fashion, 
Zeus,  the  newly-born  child  (the  true  sky),  was  conveyed  to 
the  island  of  Crete,  and  there  concealed  in  a  cave  on  Mount 
Ida.  The  nymphs  Adrastea  and  Ida  tended  and  nursed  him, 
the  goat  Amalthea  supplied  him  with  milk,  bees  gathered 
honey  for  him,  and  in  the  meantime,  lest  his  infantile  cries 
should  reach  the  ears  of  Cronus,  Jlhea's  servants,  the  Curetes, 
were  appointed  to  keep  up  a  continual  noise  and  din  in  the 
neighborhood  by  dancing  and  clashing  their  swords  and 
shields. 

"  When  Zeus  (the  true  sky)  had  grown  to  manhood  he 
succeeded  by  the  aid  of  Gaea,  or  perhaps  of  Metis,  in  per- 
suading Cronus  to  bring  back  into  the  light  the  sons  whom 
he  had  swallowed  and  the  stone  which  had  been  given  him  in 
deceit.  The  stone  was  placed  at  Delphi  as  a  memorial  for 
all  time.  The  liberated  gods  joined  their  brethren  in  a  league 
to  drive  their  father  from  the  throne  and  set  Zeus  in  his 
place."  9 

The  age  of  Cronus  is  called  the  '  Golden/  for  he  was  the 
protecting  god,  blanketing  the  earth  as  under  a  greenhouse 
roof.  His  name  means  the  '  Dark  One.'  But  as  this  signi- 
fies nothing  in  this  age,  it  being  unintelligible  to  modern 
thought,  confusion  has  naturally  followed.  Thus,  Max 
Miiller  says  he  is  Time  (  ?)  ;  Kuhn,  Midnight-sky;  Sayce, 
the  sun ;  Canon  Taylor,  Star-swallowing  sky ;  Tiel,  Midnight- 
sky,  Under-world,  etc. ;  Hartung,  Sun  scorching  spring. 
Thus  the  authorities  are  set  in  confusion.  Now,  in  the  light 
of  the  present  hypothesis  all  is  clear:  the  new-born  scenes 
were  smothered  by  the  dark  one,  and  thus  hidden  from  the 
earth.  Bright  Zeus  (Jupiter),  the  true  sky,  alone  escaped 
this  fate. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  liberated  gods,  according  to  the 
legend,  now  decided  to  enthrone  Zeus  in  his  rightful  place, 
but  the  Titans,  the  elder  gods,  did  not  acquiesce  to  this 

"Murray,  "Manual  of  Mythology,"  20th  ed.,  pp.  45-46. 


260  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

change  of  government.  These  giants  sprang  from  the  blood 
of  Uranus,  the  old  ring;  they  were  of  such  monstrous  size, 
being  closer  to  the  eye  than  the  other  sky-forms,  and  they 
were  of  such  fearful  appearance,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that 
the  people  of  Greece  thought  that  they  were  swallowing  up 
all  the  other  gods.  They  were  twelve  in  number.  Amongst 
them  were  Oceanus,  whose  very  name  suggests  water,  and 
whose  children  were  all  mythological  rivers,  Alphesu,  Peneus, 
etc.;  his  daughters  were  called  the  Oceanides.  Hyperion 
was  another  one  of  the  twelve.  He  seems  to  have  been  the 
light  in  the  canopy,  for  he  is  credited  with  being  the  father 
of  Helios,  the  sun;  Selene,  the  moon;  and  Eos,  or  Aurora, 
the  dawn.  Of  course  all  these  lights  were  first  seen  in  the 
canopy.  lapetos,  or  Japetus,  was  the  father  of  Atlas,  whom 
all  know  so  well  because  of  his  bearing  the  vapor  globe  on 
his  back.  lapetus  was  imprisoned  with  Cronus,  the  old  vapor 
sky  in  Tartarus,  the  black  canopy.  Cronus  is  also  one  of 
the  Titans.  His  wife,  Ehea,  whose  Latin  name  is  Cybele, 
like  all  the  canopies  was  called  '  the  mother  ?  because  she 
was  the  mother  of  the  gods,  the  Magna  Mater.  She  is  of 
the  same  nature  as  !N~u-t,  with  whom  she  may  be  identified. 

We  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  Titans  did  not 
acquiesce  in  the  change  of  government  brought  about  by  the 
gods  liberated  from  the  maw  of  Cronus,  hence  war  broke  out. 
In  other  words,  though  the  clear  sky  had  appeared,  remnants 
of  the  old  canopies  still  lingered,  and  these  vapor-forms  were 
said  to  be  warring  with  the  new  gods,  who  time  and  again 
slew  them.  Yet,  nothing  fearing,  these  great  giants  of  the 
fallen  canopy  ever  returned  to  the  attack. 

It  is  said  that  they  took  up  Ossa  (a  cloud  mountain)  and 
piled  it  on  the  top  of  Mount  Pelion  (another  cloud  moun- 
tain), and  from  this  great  height  they  sprang  upon  Olympus, 
the  home  mountain  of  the  new  race  of  gods.10  It  is  then  said 

10  The  cloud-mountains,  of  which  Olympus  was  the  mightiest,  were 
permanent  features  in  the  upper  atmosphere,  and  are  not  to  be  con- 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          261 

that  these  giants  drove  the  gods  and  heroes  down  into  Egypt, 
that  is,  into  the  southern  sky,  which  alone  remained  clear  and 
open  from  their  black,  gigantic  forms.  Apollo,  the  sun,  was 
changed  into  a  crow,  a  ka,  or  kaw,  a  soul  separated  from  its 
body;  that  is,  an  outcast  hidden  in  the  vapor.  Zeus  (Jupiter, 
Jove),  the  pure  sky,  was  changed  into  a  raven;  that  is,  black 
cloudlets  floated  athwart  his  fair  face.  Disguised  thus,  he 
was  sacrificed  unto  the  spirit  of  the  watery  waste.  Hera 
(Juno)  was  turned  into  a  red-cow,  which  recalls  to  our  mind 
the  fact  that  in  the  Hindu  myths  lowing  kine  were  clouds. 
Venus,  like  Ea,  was  changed  into  a  fish. 

The  mountains   skipped   like  rams,  the  little  hills 
Like  lambs,  or  young  sons  of  the  flock,  the  clouds. 
No  wonder  that  the  Psalmist  asked  the  sea 
What  ailed  it,  that  it  fled  away  and  fell. 
The  Giants  falling  covered  the  pure  sky, 
And  solid  flint  was  changed  into  a  stream.11 

After  many  days  Pallas  Athene  (Minerva),  who  was  the 
offspring  of  Zeus,  without  a  mother,  and  whom  the  records 
tell  us  sprang  from  his  head  completely  armed,  invented  for 
her  father  thunderbolts.  With  these  he  hurried  back  to  the 
war.  The  open  sky  brought  our  modern  storm  with  it,  thus 
thunder  was  a  newly  invented  thing,  and  it  is  further  re- 
corded that  with  its  might  he  subdued  the  giants  one  and  all. 

O  Thunderer!     O  mighty  Thunderer! 

O  wondrous  blue  sky  that  hast  come  to  stay! 

We  scarce  may  think  of  thee  when  thou  didst  dwell 

Above  Olympus,  when  the  mind  of  man 

Knew  not  and  saw  not  save  by  sound  in  ear. — 

He  heard  thy  infant  voice  as  thunder  speak, 

And,  hearing,  knew  a  change  was  coming  soon. 

It  seems  so  strange,  O  Zeus,  that  once  there  was 

A  curtain  hanging  o'er  thy  face,  a  veil, 


fused    with    the    fleeting    storm    forms.      These    mountains    held    their 
position   under   the   uplifting   influence   of   a   zonal   canopy-belt   which 
prevented  the  radiation  of  their  heat,  and  thus  the  lighter  than  air 
vapors  were  drawn  to  immense  heights. 
11  Ps.  cxiv:4-8. 


262  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

And  man,  so  puny,  knew,  but  saw  you  not! — 

To  see  a  god  was  death  to  mortals  then. — 

Behold  thy  glory  filled  his  troubled  dreams! 

A  nightmare  grand,  and  yet  perchance  he  waked, 

And,  waking,  found  thy  dreamy  vapors  real! 

Clouds  piled  on  clouds  on  top  of  other  clouds, 

As  mountains  heaped  on  mountains  reaching  high — 

A  ladder  which  the  hosts  of  heaven  used. 

So  dreaming  of  a  daily  sight  to  him 

Young  Jacob  felt  the  God  of  Nature  near. — 

Unveiled,  uncloaked  the  Titans  all  have  gone, 

But  thou,  0  Thunderer,  hast  come  to  stay! 

Personified.    Hie!  Storm  King,  rule  each  shower! 

Pallas  Athene,  the  goddess  of  Wisdom,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, sprang  from  her  father's  head  fully  equipped  for  the 
fray.  Wisdom  burst  upon  man  when  the  clear  sky  caused 
their  gods  to  evaporate.12  She  was  '  Queen  of  the  Air/ 
as  Ruskin  says : 

Full  many  arrows  did  she  turn  aside, 

And  many  heroes  by  her  arrows  fell. 

Thus  waged  the  war  of  falling  canopies, 

Thus  waged  the  battle  of  the  changing  sea, 

And  changes  brought  with  them  the  light  of  wisdom. 

Minerva-like,  thought  after  thought  sprang  up 

From  the  true  sky  in  burning  eloquence — 

The  visions  of  the  past  were  now  no  more. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  event  in  this  last  battlefield  of  the 
gods  is  Apollo's  (the  sun's)  victory  over  the  serpent-ring, 
Python.  In  honor  of  his  victory  Byron  sings: 

"The  lord  of  the  unerring  bow 
The  God  of  life,  and  poesy,  and  light — 
The  Sun,  in  human  limbs  arrayed,  and  brow 
All  radiant  from  his  triumph  in  the  fight, 
The   shaft   hath   just  been   shot  the   arrow  bright 


12  In  our  chapter  on  "  Genesis "  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
cause  of  the  removal  of  the  Eden  Canopy  was  to  bring  wisdom  to  man. 
He  had  eaten  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  Natural 
things  had  therefore  to  pass  away,  that  he  might  be  led  to  see  the 
spiritual;  that  he  might  be  led  to  worship  the  Creator  instead  of  his 
works. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          263 

With  an  immortal's  vengeance;   in  his  eye 
And   nostril   beautiful   disdain,   and  might 
And  majesty,  flash  their  full  lightnings  by 
Developing  the  glance  of  Deity."13 

This  picture  of  the  sun  personified 
Portrays   the   universal    scene   again — 
A  wheeling  and  a  whirling  glory  hid 
By  heaven's  curtains  drawn  about  a  lamp, 
Much  magnified  to  many  times  its  size, 
And  mock  suns  keeping  company  with  the  real 
All  girt  with  halos  and  diffused  light — 
Like  luminous  bright   circles   born   of  fire. 
A  heaven-wide  battlefield  all  bloody  red 
Revolving  world-clouds  and  a  misty  haze, 
And  towards  the  pole  a  helix  spinning  round 
The  Isle  of  Delos,  or  the  serpent's  egg. — 
Known  in  the  myths  as  the  waste  floating  rock, 
The  cave-hole  of  the  north,  the  starry  sea. 

This  open  place  is  of  such  mythological  interest  that  our 
readers  will  pardon  us  if  we  digress  from  our  subject  in 
order  to  investigate  some  of  its  beauties.  "  In  ancient  cos- 
mology the  '  door  of  heaven '  was  situated  at  the  North  Pole 
of  the  sky.'7 14 

Job  refers  to  the  open  place  as  the  "  Island  of  the  Inno- 
cent. "  15  The  Tacullies  say,  God  first  created  an  island. 
Greek  traditions  fix  the  Upa-Merou  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
human  race,  and  the  Egyptians  claim  that  their  ancestors 
came  from  the  Island  of  Mero.  Among  the  Hindus  Meru 
was  the  land  of  the  gods,  the  place  where  deity  was  shrouded 
in  darkness  and  mystery.  Phaeton,  whose  story  was  told  in 
our  last  chapter,  was  a  scorching  canopy.  He  was  the  son 
of  Merops,  and  Theopompus  tells  us  that  the  people  who 
inhabited  Atlantis  were  the  Meropes,  the  people  of  Merou. 

In  the  Hindu  legends  the  great  battle  between  Kama  and 
Havana,  the  sun  and  the  canopy,  took  place  on  the  island  of 

u  "  Childe  Harold,"  iv,  161.    Certain  liberties  taken  with  the  last  line. 
14 Khandogya-Upanishad,  xxiv,  3,  4,  7,  8,  11,  12.     "Sacred  Books  of 
the  East,"  vol.  i,  pt.  i,  pp.  36,  37.          "Job  xxii:30. 


264  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Lanka.  Kama  built  a  stone  bridge  which  reminds  us  of  the 
Bif  rost  bridge  of  the  Scandinavians.  It  was  sixty  miles  long 
and  reached  to  the  island.  This  island  again  carries  us  to 
the  North  Land.  It  reminds  us  of  Asgard,  which  lay  to  the 
west  of  Europe  and  was  reached  by  the  Bridge.  It  was  to 
the  east  and  west  that  the  pillars  of  the  canopy  were  seen 
dipping,  or,  we  should  say,  rising  and  setting,  against  the 
horizon.  In  the  Arabian  legends  we  have  the  scene  of  the 
world  catastrophe  described  as  an  island.  Here  the  gods  of 
Scandinavia  met  their  doomsday.  It  was  the  place  where 
the  three  cloud-mountain  chains  went  out  as  three  roots  of 
the  great  tree  Ygdrasil.  It  was  the  place  of  the  sacred  tree 
of  the  '  world-mountain '  that  the  Hindu  legends  refer  to. 
And  its  top  we  see  was  Olympus,  below  it  was  hell,  and  in 
between  was  the  open-eye,  Ymer,  where  Odin  left  his  precious 
eye  in  pawn.  It  was  the  Island  of  Meru  or  Merou. 

The  Ojibways  cross  to  paradise  on  a  great  snake,  which 
serves  as  a  bridge.  The  Choctaw  bridge  is  a  slippery  pine- 
log.  The  South  American  Manacicas  cross  on  a  wooden 
bridge. 

"  Among  some  of  the  North  American  tribes  '  the  souls 
come  to  a  great  lake '  (the  eye-hole  or  cave)  c  where  there  is 
a  beautiful  island,  toward  which  they  paddle  in  a  canoe  of 
white  stone.  On  the  way  there  arises  a  storm,  and  the  wicked 
souls  are  wrecked,  and  the  heaps  of  their  bones  are  to  be 
seen  under  the  water,  but  the  good  reach  the  happy  island." 

"  The  Slav  believed  in  a  pathway  or  road  which  led  to 
the  other  world;  and,  since  the  journey  was  long,  they  put 
boots  into  the  coffin  (for  it  was  made  on  foot),  and  coins  to 
pay  the  ferrying  across  a  wide  sea,  even  as  the  Greeks  ex- 
pected to  be  carried  over  the  Styx  by  Charon.  This  abode 
of  the  dead,  at  the  end  of  this  long  pathway,  was  an  island, 
a  warm,  fertile  land,  called  Buy  an."  16 

16  Tylor,  "  Early  Mankind,"  p.  362.     Poor,  "  Sanskrit  and  Kindred 
Literatures,"  pp.  371,  372.     Donnelly,  "  Ragnarok,"  pp.  386,  387. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          265 

Ovid's  earth  was  surrounded  by  the  ocean.  "  And  along 
the  outer  strand  of  that  sea  they  gave  lands  for  the  giant- 
races  to  dwell  in,  and  against  the  attack  of  restless  giants 
they  built  a  burg  within  the  sea  and  around  the  earth." 

This  is  the  spot  where  Apollo,  or  the  sun,  first  appeared, 
hence  it  was  said  that  he  was  born  there  (Isle  of  Delos). 
His  father  was  Zeus,  the  pure  sky,  and  his  mother  Latona, 
or  the  shade,  from  whence  he  was  seen  to  emerge.  Latona 
was  the  concealing  hiding  thing,  the  canopy. 

This  eye-hole  spot  where  Apollo  was  born  is  also  the 
Diktaian  cave  in  which  the  infant  Zeus,  his  father,  the  clear 
sky,  was  born.  The  Lake  and  the  Cave  in  our  nursery  tale — 
the  Lady  descending  into  the  Lake  and  rising  from  the  Cave, 
etc.,  etc. — are  in  every  sense  the  far-north  land,  the  country 
of  the  Hyperboreans,  from  whose  caverns  the  piercing  blasts 
of  the  north  wind  are  said  to  have  issued. 

Many  of  the  myths  we  have  just  cited  referred  to  this 
lake  as  an  island.  We  would  now  point  out  that  it  was  like- 
wise of  necessity  a  cave.  The  Greeks  and  Egyptians  con- 
sidered it  the  birthplace  of  their  respective  races.  The  fol- 
lowing legends  throws  some  light  on  the  reason  why  this 
clear-spot  was  regarded  as  the  beginning  place.  The  Choc- 
taws  say  that  in  Nanih  waiga,  the  sloping  hill  "  was  a  cave, 
the  house  of  the  Master  of  Breath.  Here  he  made  the  first 
men  from  the  clay  around  him,  and,  as  at  that  time  the  waters 
covered  the  earth,  he  raised  the  wall  to  dry  them  on.  When 
the  soft  mud  had  hardened  into  elastic  flesh  and  firm  bone, 
he  banished  the  waters  to  their  channels  and  beds,  and  gave 
the  dry  land  to  his  creatures."  17 

The  Indians,  along  with  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth  that  then  was,  saw  new  conditions  continually  arising 
in  the  egg-hole.  They  saw  hordes  of  animals  and  even  strange 
races  of  their  fellow  beings  coming  down  from  the  far  north, 
driven  forward  by  some  last  advance  of  the  departing  Ice 
"Brinton,  "Myths  of  the  New  World,"  p.  247. 


266  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

age.  They  saw  all  this  and  imagined  that  these  creatures, 
like  the  sky  scenes,  had  all  originated  up  there  in  that  cave- 
hole  region,  hence  it  was  to  them  the  beginning  place. 

"  A  parallel  to  the  legend  just  cited  occurs  among  the 
Six  Nations  of  the  North.  They  with  one  consent  looked 
to  a  mountain  near  the  falls  of  the  Oswego  River,  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  as  the  locality  where  their  forefathers 
saw  the  light  of  day ;  and  their  name,  Oneida,  signifies  '  the 
people  of  the  stone.' 

"  The  cave  of  Pacarin-Tampu,  the  Lodgings  of  the  Dawn, 
or  the  Place  of  Birth  of  the  Peruvians,  was  five  leagues  dis- 
tant from  Cuzco,  surrounded  by  a  sacred  grove,  and  inclosed 
with  temples  of  great  antiquity. 

"  From  its  hallowed  recesses,"  says  Balboa,  "  the  mythical 
civilizers  of  Peru,  the  first  men,  emerged,  and  in  it,  during 
the  time  of  the  flood,  the  remnants  of  the  race  escaped  the 
fury  of  the  waves."  18 

Though  the  Place  of  Birth  in  the  above  myths  has  been 
assigned  to  specific  geographical  localities,  yet  it  is  evident 
from  the  context  that  originally  the  place  of  beginning  had  a 
mythological  horizon.  The  egg-hole  of  the  Peruvians  may 
have  been  in  the  Southern  sky. 

Donnelly  also  gives  the  following :  "  The  philosopher 
of  Oraibi  tells  us  that  the  people  climbed  a  ladder  or  magical 
tree  from  the  cave-hole  to  this  world.  The  firmament,  the 
ceiling  of  this  world,  was  low  down  upon  the  earth — the 
floor  of  this  world.  This  was  an  age  of  cold  and  darkness 
and  there  was  as  yet  no  sun  or  moon." 

Naturally  darkness  is  associated  with  this  cave-hole, 
Latona;  the  shade  kept  drawing  in  closer  and  closer  until 
at  last  the  inner  edge  was  precipitated.  During  this  stage, 
as  the  Oraibis  say,  "  it  was  an  age  of  cold  and  darkness." 
The  ancient  Britons  tell  us  of  the  same  conditions.  They 
say  that: 

M  "  Ragnarok,"  pp.  201,  202. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          267 

"  The  profligacy  of  mankind  provoked  the  great  Supreme 
to  send  a  pestilential  wind  upon  the  earth  A  pure  poison 
descended,  every  blast  was  death.  At  this  time  the  patriarch, 
distinguished  for  his  integrity,  was  shut  up,  together  with 
his  select  company,  in  the  inclosure  with  the  strong  door. 
Here  the  just  ones  were  safe  from  injury.  Presently  a 
tempest  of  fire  arose.  It  split  the  earth  asunder  to  the  great 
deep.  The  lake  Llion  burst  its  bounds,  and  the  waves  of  the 
sea  lifted  themselves  on  high  around  the  borders  of  Britain, 
the  rain  poured  down  from  heaven,  and  the  waters  covered 
the  earth."  19 

The  blast  of  poisonous  vapor  indicates  the  dispersion  of 
the  gaseous  canopy,  which  in  our  scientific  chapters  was 
figured  as  floating  above  the  atmosphere.  It  may  have  con- 
sisted in  part  of  carbon  dioxide,  but  be  this  as  it  may,  its 
rupture  meant  the  fall  of  the  cloud-vapors  and  belts,  which 
had  attained  great  heights  in  the  atmosphere,  carried  upward 
by  their  own  buoyancy.  Water-vapor  being  lighter  than 
air,  and  radiation,  and  hence  condensation,  being  prevented 
by  the  overruling  blanket,  these  phenomena  of  raised  moun- 
tain-clouds, and  an  open  lake  space  in  the  north,  were 
inevitable.  When  the  canopy  itself  was  ruptured,  the  above 
myth  goes  on  to  tell  us,  Lake  Llion,  the  sky-hole,  burst  its 
bounds.  Many  other  tribes  and  tongues  and  peoples  have 
recorded  this  same  break-up. 

"  The  Algonquins  believed  in  a  world,  an  earth,  anterior 
to  this  of  ours,  but  one  without  light  or  human  inhabitants. 
A  lake  burst  its  bounds  and  submerged  it  wholly."  20 

The  Aztecs  prayed  to  Tezcatlipoca,  who  was  represented 
as  a  flying  serpent — that  is,  they  prayed  to  the  canopy,  to  the 
god  of  the  black  waters — and  their  cry  was :  "  Is  it  possible 
that  this  lash  and  chastisement  are  not  given  for  our  cor- 
rection and  amendment,  but  only  for  our  total  destruction 


18  <( 


Mythology  of  the  British  Druids,"  p.  226. 
"Ragnarok,"  p.  222. 


268  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

and  overthrow;  that  the  sun  will  never  more  shine  upon  us, 
but  that  we  must  remain  in  perpetual  darkness  ?  *  *  * 
It  is  a  sore  thing  to  tell  how  we  are  all  in  darkness.  *  *  * 
O  Lord,  *  *  *  make  an  end  of  this  smoke  and  fog. 
Quench  also  the  burning  and  destroying  fire  of  thine  anger ; 
let  serenity  come  and  clearness,  let  the  small  birds  of  the 
people  begin  to  sing  and  approach  the  sun."  21 

The  Chinese  historians  say  that  "  P'an-ku  came  forth  in 
the  midst  of  the  great  chaotic  void,  and  we  know  not  his 
origin ;  that  he  knew  the  rationale  of  heaven  and  earth,  and 
comprehended  the  changes  of  the  darkness  and  the  light." 
These  annals  tell  us  further  of  the  "  Ten  Stems  "  or  stages  of 
canopy  development :  "  At  Wu — the  Sixth  Stem — the  Dark- 
ness and  the  Light  unite  with  injurious  effects;  all  things 
become  solid  (frozen),  and  the  Darkness  destroys  the  growth 
of  all  things.  At  Kung — the  Seventh  Stem — the  Darkness 
nips  all  things.  At  Jin — the  Ninth  Stem — the  Light  begins 
to  nourish  all  things  in  the  recesses  below.  Lastly,  at  Tsze, 
all  things  begin  to  germinate."  22 

This  last  myth  hints  at  the  coming  birth  of  the  sun.  The 
edges  of  the  cave-hole  began  to  grow  bright,  so,  naturally, 
when  the  sun  did  appear  they  said  (in  Greece)  "  Latona  or 
the  shade  was  his  mother."  This  part  of  the  development  is 
beautifully  set  forth  in  the  Oraibi  legend,  some  portions  of 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  but,  after  all,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  Indians  departed  further  from  the  ways  of  nature 
than  did  the  Greeks.  We  will  now  cite  that  portion  which 
pertains  to  the  creation  of  the  sun  and  moon :  "  Machito,  one 
of  their  gods,  raised  the  firmament  on  his  shoulders  to  where 
it  is  now  seen.  Still  the  world  was  dark,  as  there  was  no 
sun,  no  moon,  and  no  stars.  So  the  people  murmured  because 
of  the  darkness  and  the  cold.  Machito  said,  "  Bring  me 


21  Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  204. 

** "  Compendium    of    Wong-shi-Shing,"    as    quoted    in    "  Ragnarok/ 
pp.  210-211. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          269 

seven  maidens ;  "  and  they  brought  him  seven  maidens ;  and 
he  said,  "  Bring  me  seven  baskets  of  cotton-bolls ;  "  and  they 
brought  him  seven  baskets  of  cotton-bolls;  and  he  taught  the 
seven  maidens  to  weave  a  magical  fabric  from  the  cotton, 
and  when  they  had  finished  it  he  held  it  aloft,  and  the  breeze 
carried  it  away  toward  the  firmament,  and  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye  it  was  transformed  into  a  beautiful  and  full-orbed 
moon ;  and  the  same  breeze  caught  the  remnants  of  fluctuant 
cotton,  which  the  maidens  had  scattered  during  their  work, 
and  carried  them  aloft,  and  they  were  transformed  into 
bright  stars.  But  still  it  was  cold ;  and  the  people  murmured 
again,  and  Machito  said,  "  Bring  me  seven  buffalo-robes," 
and  from  the  densely  matted  hair  of  the  robes  he  wove 
another  fabric,  which  the  storm  carried  away  into  the  sky, 
and  it  was  transformed  into  the  full-orbed  sun.  Then 
Machito  appointed  times  and  seasons,  and  ways  for  the 
heavenly  bodies ;  and  the  gods  of  the  firmament  have  obeyed 
the  injunctions  of  Machito  from  the  day  of  their  creation  to 
the  present."  23 

The  Thlinkeets  of  British  Columbia  say  that  their  hero- 
god,  Yehl,  opened  three  mysterious  boxes,  letting  out  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars.  "  When  he  set  up  the  blazing  light  (the 
sun)  in  heaven,  the  people  that  saw  it  were  at  first  afraid. 
Many  hid  themselves  in  the  mountains,  and  in  the  forests, 
and  even  in  the  water,  and  were  changed  into  the  various 
kinds  of  animals  that  frequent  these  places."  24 

"  The  Gallinomeros  of  Central  California  also  recollect 
the  day  of  darkness  and  the  return  of  the  sun.  '  In  the 
beginning,  they  say,  there  was  no  light,  but  a  thick  darkness 
covered  all  the  earth.  Man  stumbled  blindly  against  man 
and  against  the  animals,  the  birds  clashed  together  in  the 
air,  and  confusion  reigned  everywhere.  The  Hawk,  happen- 
ing by  chance  to  fly  into  the  face  of  the  Coyote,  there  fol- 

28  Popula/r  Science  Monthly,  October,  1879,  p.  800. 
84 Bancroft,  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  100. 


270  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

lowed  mutual  apologies,  and  afterward  a  long  discussion  on 
the  emergency  of  the  situation.  Determined  to  make  some 
effort  toward  abating  the  public  evil,  the  two  set  about  a 
remedy.  The  Coyote  gathered  a  great  heap  of  tules  (rushes), 
rolled  them  into  a  ball,  and  gave  it  to  the  Hawk,  together 
with  some  pieces  of  flint.  Gathering  all  together  as  well  as 
he  could,  the  Hawk  flew  straight  up  into  the  sky,  where  he 
struck  fire  with  the  flints,  lit  his  ball  of  reeds,  and  left  it 
there  whirling  along  all  in  a  fierce  red  glow,  as  it  continues 
to  the  present ;  for  it  is  the  sun.  In  the  same  way  the  moon 
was  made,  but  as  the  tules  of  which  it  was  constructed  were 
rather  damp,  its  light  has  always  been  somewhat  uncertain 
and  feeble."  25 

Naturally,  the  next  stage  in  these  nature-myths  sets  forth 
the  complete  triumph  of  the  sun.  Innumerable  legends  cover 
this  point,  from  which  we  select  the  following:  Cacus  was 
a  huge  giant  which  inhabited  the  cave  with  which  we  have 
become  so  familiar.  By  profession  he  was  a  robber,  and,  as 
the  records  show,  he  stole  certain  swift  cows,  the  oxen  of 
Geryon  (clouds).  His  true  character  is  revealed  as  the  fall- 
ing cloud  obscuring  belt.  It  is  said  that  he  vomited  smoke 
and  flame  when  Hercules  attacked  him.  The  whole  scene 
simply  depicts  a  falling  canopy  drawing  nearer  and  nearer 
to  the  eye  of  the  beholder,  and  so  eclipsing  the  other  sky 
forms  which  floated  higher  up.  He  stole  them  away,  hid  them 
under  his  wing,  carried  them  into  his  cave,  etc.  Hercules, 
the  conquering  sun,  dispelled  all  this  gloom,  killing  Cacus 
•with  his  unerring  arrows  (shafts  of  sun-light),  and  so  releas- 
ing the  cows  or  canopy  forms,  which  floated  higher  up. 

The  <  Popul  Yuh/  the  book  of  the  Quiches,  has  a  very 
full  description  of  this  whole  panorama.  The  final  scene  is 
as  follows:  "  And  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  stars  were 
now  all  established ;  that  is,  they  now  become  visible,  moving 
in  their  orbits.  Yet  was  not  the  sun  then  in  the  beginning 

*  Power's  Porno  MS.,  Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  86. 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          271 

the  same  as  now ;  his  heat  wanted  force,  and  he  was  but  as  a 
reflection  in  a  mirror;  verily,  say  the  historians,  not  at  all 
the  same  sun  as  that  of  to-day.  Nevertheless,  he  dried  up 
and  warmed  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  answered  many 
good  ends." 

Artemis  (Diana),  the  silver  moon,  Apollo's  sister,  waa 
born  at  the  same  time  that  her  brother  was.  And  seven  days 
the  sacred  swans  flew  around,  encircling  the  island  and  the 
lake  seven  times.  It  is  recorded  also  that  a  sacred  light  was 
diffused  over  the  lake — a  golden  blaze  from  the  holy  flaming 
torch  or  sun  itself.  The  Oraibi  legend  introduced  the  thought 
of  the  seven  maidens  weaving  the  seven  cotton-bolls,  and  here 
we  have  the  seven  sacred  swans  guarding  the  open  place,  or, 
as  it  is  called,  '  the  lake/  and  we  know  also,  from  the  myths 
quoted,  that  this  lake  was  in  the  sky.  Hera  (Juno)  was 
the  jealous  spouse  of  Zeus  (Jupiter),  and  it  is  recorded  that 
she  drove  Leto  (Latona),  the  mother  canopy,  from  the  twins. 
Hera,  like  Pallas  Athene,  was  a  goddess  of  the  air,  and,  to 
all  appearances,  the  air  did  drive  the  vapor  shadow  away, 
but  before  her  departure  the  mother  entrusted  her  children 
to  the  care  of  Themis,  whose  name  signifies  '  Justice.'  In 
other  words,  she  placed  them  under  the  care  of  inevitable 
law. 

It  was  from  this  spot,  where  the  sacred  light  of  the  new 
born  sun  was  first  seen  burning,  that  Prometheus  stole  fire 
which  he  gave  to  man,  a  Titan's  gift  of  love  caught  from 
the  bright  sun  itself;  yet  for  the  act  Yulcan  chained  him  to 
the  rock-like  canopy,  and  one  of  the  evil  birds  connected 
therewith  daily  fed  upon  his  liver. 

Man,  however,  in  this  case  was  not  ungrateful.  In  honor 
of  his  deed,  each  year  they  sent  a  ship  to  Lemnos  to  bring 
back  new  fire.  This  ship  sailed  to  Delos  to  fetch  the  gift, 
and  meanwhile  for  nine  days  all  the  fires  in  the  country  were 
extinguished,  so  that  they  could  be  rekindled  by  the  new- 
born flame. 


272  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

One  of  the  early  adventures  of  Apollo  occurred  when  he 
was  only  one  year  old.  Python,  a  great  snake,  was  coiled  in 
nine  folds  around  Parnassus,  where  the  Muses  dwelt.  The 
bright  sun  killed  him  with  his  arrows,  but  as  Juno  had  created 
him,  this  deed  only  increased  her  anger  against  the  new-born 
infant. 

Time  passed  and  the  '  templum '  or  wide  expanse  in  the 
space  marked  out,  the  egg-hole  or  the  eye,  was  cleared. 
Phoebus  Apollo,  or  the  '  golden-haired/  came  from  the  sum- 
mit of  Olympus  and  dwelt  in  this  creation  of  his  hand,  the 
temple  of  the  sky,  the  open  way,  and  there  as  an  oracle  he 
spoke  to  man,  telling  him  of  the  true  astronomy  and  the  way 
of  creation.  Following  this  pattern,  man  established  the 
Delphic  oracle,  and  many  such  in  imitation  of  the  heavenly. 

Connected  with  the  thought  that  the  old  sky  was  a  laby- 
rinth, or  puzzle,  which  the  clearing  away  of  the  '  templum/ 
or  wide  expanse,  solved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  early  in- 
quirer into  the  ways  of  nature,  is  the  great  labyrinth  which 
was  constructed  by  Daedalus.  It  was  like  the  lost  sky  river, 
Mseander,  for  which  the  Grecian  river  is  named,  which  flows 
back  on  its  course,  returning  to  itself.  It  was  a  ring  or 
spiral  vapor-belt,  and  Daedalus  built  it  for  a  certain  king 
named  Minos,  a  sky-king,  though  called  a  Creton.  Somehow 
the  builder  lost  the  king's  esteem,  and  the  evil  monarch 
forthwith  imprisoned  him  in  a  high  tower.  From  this  he 
escaped,  only  to  find  that  he  could  not  leave  the  island,  as 
Minos  was  keeping  a  strict  watch  on  all  departing  vessels. 
Now,  Daedalus  said  of  the  king  that  though  he  might  control 
the  land  and  sea,  yet  he  could  not  rule  the  regions  of  the 
crystal  air.  With  that  he  set  himself  to  fabricate  wings  for 
himself  and  his  young  son,  Icarus,  that  they  might  fly  away. 
When  these  contrivances  were  finished,  he  said  unto  his  son : 
"  Now  follow  me,  my  Icarus,  and  you  will  be  quite  safe.  I 
warn  thee,  fly  along  the  middle  track ;  nor  low,  nor  high ;  if 
low  thy  plumes  may  flag  with  ocean's  spray ;  if  high  the  sun 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          273 

may  dart  his  fiery  ray."  26  But  Icarus,  like  all  the  old  sky 
phenomena,  fell.  It  is  recorded  that  he  flew  overly  high, 
and  that  the  sun  melted  the  wax  which  attached  his  wings 
to  his  body. 

Minos  confined  in  his  labyrinth  a  fearful  sky-monster 
which  was  reputed  to  be  half  a  bull  and  half  a  man  —  that  is, 
half  a  cloud  and  half  a  halo.  This  bloody  creature,  known 
as  the  Minotaur,  as  the  story  goes,  was  fed  by  his 
master  with  human  victims.  For  this  purpose  Minos  made 
the  Athenians  furnish  him  each  year  with  seven  youths  and 
seven  maids.  The  poor  Athenians  submitted  to  this  yearly 
tribute  for  a  long  time,  until  Theseus,  a  sky-revolving  hero 
of  the  vapors,  decided  to  put  an  end  to  the  infamous  practice. 
He  sailed  away,  promising  to  return  with  white  sails  set  in 
token  of  victory.  Arrived  at  his  journey's  end,  he  killed  the 
bull  and  found  his  way  back  again  through  the  labyrinthian 
mists  by  means  of  a  thread  given  him  by  the  good  Ariadne, 
the  daughter  of  the  old  king.  This  child  of  Minos  was  the 
light,  and  when  once  outside  the  walls  of  the  great  sky  prison 
or  labyrinth  he  took  her  with  him.  Landing  on  an  isle,  he 
abandoned  her,  and  in  doing  so  made  a  great  mistake.  He 
had  promised  to  return  with  white  sails  set,  but  when  he  left 
the  light  behind,  all  was  darkness.  Seeing  this  blackness 
while  the  ship  was  yet  afar,  his  father,  thinking  him  dead, 
killed  himself. 

There  is  not  much  difference  between  the  flying  ship  that 
conveyed  Theseus  and  the  boats  that  carried  Ha  and  Osiris 
across  Nu-t's  back.  Celestial  cattle  like  the  bull,  Miotaur, 
are  common  in  the  myths  of  all  the  ancients.  We  have 
already  seen  how  the  swift  flying  vapor-belt  was  compared 
to  a  stag,  a  hare,  and  to  flying  horses.  Pegasus  was  one  of 
this  kind.  By  a  turn  of  speech,  we  now  say  of  the  camel 
that  he  is  the  '  ship  of  the  desert/  therefore  it  does  not  seem 


86  Ovid    (Elton's  tr.),  slightly  altered. 
18 


274  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

strange,  after  all,  that  in  the  olden  time  the  flying  cloud  ships 
were  called  'ships  of  the  canopy '  or  '  racing  steeds.' 

Pegasus,  the  winged  horse,  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  bright  of  these.  We  can  picture  him  in  our  minds  as  he 
stood  with  nostril  smoking  in  disdain  of  man,  for,  be  it 
remembered,  he  never  allowed  any  but  the  gods  to  ride  on 
his  back.  Yet  because  Pallas  Athene  commanded  him  so  to 
do,  he  departed  from  his  custom  and  allowed  Bellerophon  to 
mount.  Forthwith  they  went  to  battle  with  the  bloody  dragon 
of  the  fiery  tail,  known  as  Chimsera.  From  her  pitchy  throat 
issued  flame  smoke  and  sulphurous  mist.  Pegasus  seemed 
willing  to  enter  this  battle  for  Athene's  sake,  for  these  mists 
were  working  havoc  with  her  sky.  It  will  be  recalled  that  she 
was  the  blue-eyed  goddess  of  the  free  breeze,  the  air  of  heaven 
itself,  and  naturally  she  could  not  endure  this  polluting 
Chimsera  any  longer.  Chimsera  was  nothing  but  a  vile,  fire- 
breathing  lion,  dragon,  or  goat  vapor-form,  any  way.  Beller- 
ophon and  the  bright  sun-horse  of  course  conquered  her. 

Of  the  ancestry  of  this  horrid  creature  which  we  have 
just  seen  despatched,  Hesiod  says: 

"  And  she  brought  forth  another  monster,  irresistible, 
nowise  like  to  mortal  men  or  immortal  gods,  in  a  hollow 
cavern;  the  divine,  stubborn-hearted  Echidna  (half  nymph, 
with  dark  eyes  and  fair  cheeks ;  and  half,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  serpent  huge  and  terrible  and  vast),  speckled,  and  flesh- 
devouring,  'neath  caves  of  sacred  Earth.  For  there  is  her 
cavern,  deep  under  a  hollow  rock,  afar  from  immortal  gods 
as  well  as  mortal  men :  there,  I  ween,  have  the  gods  assigned 
to  her  famous  mansions  to  inhabit.  But  she,  the  destructive 
Echidna,  was  confined  in  Arima  beneath  the  earth,  a  nymph 
immortal,  and  all  her  days  insensible  to  age.  With  her  they 
say  that  Typhaon  associated  in  love,  a  terrible  and  lawless 
ravisher  for  the  dark-eyed  maid.  And  she,  having  con- 
ceived, bare  fierce-hearted  children.  The  dog  Orthus  first 
she  bare  for  Geryon,  and  next,  in  the  second  place,  she 


MYTHS  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME          275 

brought  forth  the  irresistible  and  ineffable  flesh-devourer 
Cerberus,  dog  of  hell,  with  brazen  voice  and  fifty  heads,  a 
bold  and  strong  beast.  Thirdly,  again,  she  gave  birth  to  the 
Lernsean  Hydra,  subtle  in  destruction,  whom  Juno,  white- 
armed  goddess,  reared  implacably,  hating  the  mighty  Her- 
cules. And  it  Jove's  son,  Hercules,  named  of  Amphitryon, 
along  with  warlike  lolaus,  and  by  the  counsels  of  Pallas  the 
despoiler,  slaughtered  with  ruthless  sword.  But  she 
(Echidna)  bare  Chimsera,  breathing  resistless  fire,  fierce  and 
huge,  fleet-footed  as  well  as  strong:  this  monster  had  three 
heads :  one  indeed  of  a  grim-visaged  lion,  one  of  a  goat,  and 
another  of  a  serpent,  a  fierce  dragon ;  in  front  a  lion,  a  dragon 
behind,  and  in  the  midst  a  goat;  breathing  forth  the  dread 
strength  of  burning  fire.  Her  Pegasus  slew  the  brave 
Bellerophon."  27 

^"The  Theogony,"  285-325,  Bank's  tr. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

HERCULES 

HEECULES,  like  Apollo,  was  simply  another  sun  deity. 
The  myths  being  derived  from  two  different  sources,  thus 
to  one  tribe  or  people  the  sun  was  Apollo  and  to  another 
Hercules.  The  former  people  seem  to  have  lived  far  to  the 
north,  where  they  first  saw  Apollo  and  Diana  born  in  the 
egg-hole  land.  The  latter  people  seems  to  have  lived  to  the 
south,  for  Hercules  was  born  in  the  equatorial  canopy  slit, 
the  two  pillars  of  the  canopy  extending  on  either  side.  Ovid 
describes  the  palace  of  the  sun,  which  he  says  was  "  raised 
high  on  stately  columns,  bright  with  radiant  gold  and  car- 
buncle that  rivaled  the  flames.  Polished  ivory  chested  its 
highest  top,  and  double  folding  doors  shone  with  the  brightest 
of  silver."  1  The  reference  to  the  doors  is  to  the  slit  in  the 
canopy. 

The  fact  that  the  myth  of  Hercules  comes  from  a 
southern  source  is  also  borne  out  by  etymology.  The  origin 
of  the  word  Hercules  is  said  to  be  the  Phoenician  word 
'  rakal/  the  root  '  Ra  '  being  common  to  the  sun-god  through- 
out the  east  and  the  south.  Ra  was  the  Egyptian  god  of 
the  sun.  Again,  in  the  Hindu  legends,  Ra-ma,  the  sun-god, 
had  a  terrible  fight  with  Ra-vana,  a  giant  accompanied  by 
the  Ra-kshaas  or  cloud  demons,  who  had  stolen  away  his 
wife.  B-ra-hma  the  Hindu  creator  also  contains  this  root 
in  his  name. 

The  Hebrews  likewise  were  once  sun-worshipers,  as  would 
appear  from  their  names.  Thus  we  find  the  root  '  ra  ?  in 
Ab-ra-ham,  and  his  father  Te-ra-h,  and  in  his  wife,  Sa-ra-h, 
or  Sa-ra-i.  Also  in  Ra-chel  the  daughter  of  E"ahor,  the 
brother  of  Abraham.  This  root  is  also  found  in  the  name 


J"The  Metamorphoses,"   bk.   ii,   fable   i. 
276 


HERCULES  277 

Ha-ra-n,  where  Terah  died,  and  in  Padan-ra-m,  where  Jacob 
dwelt.  After  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  the  true 
God,  this  root  was  dropped  and  does  not  appear  again,  except 
in  the  name  of  Eph-ra-im,  who  was  an  adopted  son  from 
Egypt,  the  land  of  Miz-ra-im. 

The  Druids  carried  the  sun  worship  with  them  to  Ire- 
land, where  it  is  incorporated  into  the  name  of  the  famous 
hall  of  Ta-ra. 

But  to  return  to  the  history  of  our  Grecian  hero.  The 
adventures  of  his  ancestors  also  show  that  the  myth  of  Her- 
cules came  from  a  southern  source. 

Perseus,  who  was  his  great-grandfather,  like  Osiris  was 
thrust  into  a  chest.  But,  unlike  Osiris,  the  lad  had  the 
company  of  his  good  mother,  Danae,  who  was  entombed  with 
him.  They  were  carried  by  the  box  to  the  island  of  Seri- 
phus,  where  a  fisherman,  not  unlike  Ea,  the  fish-god  of 
Babylonian  and  Bel-Dagon  2  of  the  Philistines,  rescued  them. 
But  though  rescued,  their  troubles'  were  not  ended,  and  the 
account  of  these  adventures  woven  together  makes  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  the:  many  romances  of  the  vapor-ring  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Greeks. 

Briefly,  Polydectes,  king  of  the  island  and  brother  of 
Dictys  the  fisherman,  fell  in  love  with  Danae.  Eesisting 
this  love,  she  was  closed  up  by  the  disappointed  king  in  a 
brazen  tower,  but  as  Zeus,  the  clear-sky,  could  look  in  over 
the  top  of  this  tower,  he  also  fell  in  love,  and,  changing  him- 
self into  a  shower  of  pure  gold,  successfully  wooed  her  with 
his  sunshine. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  family  tree  of  Hercules.  Perseus 
had  a  son  whose  name  was  Electryon.  Alcmene,  daughter 
of  the  latter,  was  the  mother  of  Hercules.  Thus  we  see  that 
he  had  illustrious  annular  ancestry.  When  he  was  a  babe 
scarcely  two  months  old,  he  showed  his  solar  character  and 
the  blood  that  was  in  him  by  strangling  the  two  serpents  or 

2 "Dag"  in  Hebrew  means  "a  fish." 


278  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

pillars  between  which  he  was  born.  It  is  said  correctly  that 
the  jealous  Juno  (Cybele,  the  Magna  Mater  of  the  gods, 
hence  a  canopy)  sent  these  harmful  snakes  into  the  chamber 
of  the  sleeping  child,  but  thfe  awakening  sun  was  equal  to  the 
emergency.  Defeated  in  her  vengeful  deed,  Juno  then  made 
him  subject  to  Eurystheus,  who  was  the  owner  of  the  sky. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  to  free  himself  he  had  to  perform 
twelve  labors.  He  was  in  subordination  to  the  power  of 
annular  and  vapor-canopy  conditions. 

Before  considering  the  labors,  it  will  be  well  to  look 
between  the  pillars  into  the  slit  or  opening  where  the  sun 
first  appeared  in  the  equatorial  sky.  In  the  Babylonian 
Genesis  tablets  we  have  an  account  of  this  southern  slit.  It 
is  as  follows : 

The  positions  of  the  gods  Bel  and  Hea  he  fixed  with  him, 
And  he  opened  the  great  gates  in  the  darkness  shrouded. 
The  fastenings  were  strong  on  the  left  and  right. 
In  its  mass    (that  is  in  the  canopy)   he  made  a  boiling. 
The  god  Uru   (the  moon)   he  caused  to  rise  out  of  the  night  he  over- 
shadowed, 

To  fix  it  also  for  the  light  of  the  night  until  the  shining  of  the  day. 
That  the  month  might  not  be  broken,  and  in  its  amount  be  regular, 
At  the  beginning  of  the  month,  at  the  rising  of  the  night, 
His   (the  sun's)   horns  are  breaking  through  to  shine  on  the  heavens. 
On  the  seventh  day  to  circle  he  begins  to  swell, 
And  stretches  toward  the  dawn  further, 
When  the  god  Shamas  (the  sun),  in  the  horizon  of  heaven,  in  the  east, 

*  *  *  formed  beautifully  and  *  *  * 

*  *  *  to  the  orbit  Shamas  was  perfected.8 

At  this  point  the  tablet  becomes  illegible;  however,  the 
meaning  seems  plain,  the  great  gods  opened  the  slit  or  gate 
in  the  darkness  of  the  canopy,  and  through  this  Shamas,  the 
sun,  appeared;  his  beams  in  horns  at  first  broke  through 
imperfectly,  then  he  swelled  to  a  circle  or  halo,  but  from 
this  on  he  advanced  more  rapidly,  approaching  nearer  and 


8 "  The  Fifth  Tablet,"  as  translated  in  Proctor's  "  Pleasant  Ways,' 
p.  393. 


HERCULES  279 

nearer  to  his  perfect  estate.  The  movements  of  the  moon  were 
also  seen,  and  once  more  man  was  able  to  count  time.  In 
the  line  that  reads,  "  When  the  god,  Shamas,  in  the  horizon 
of  heaven,  in  the  east,"  we  see  that  the  separating  process  of 
the  two  halves  of  the  canopy  has  progressed  so  far  that  the 
sun's  orbit  can  be  traced  continuously  through  the  clearing 
heavens,  all  the  way  from  the  east,  where  he  had  at  last 
appeared  on  the  horizon ;  that  is,  they  could  trace  him  from 
the  early  morning  until  the  sunset. 

In  the  Eussian  skazaks  the  same  scene  is  depicted.  Many 
of  them  tell  of  a  healing  and  vivifying  water.  One  of  the 
stories  is  as  follows: 

"  A  prince  is  exposed  to  various  dangers  by  his  sister, 
who  is  induced  to  plot  against  his  life  by  her  demon  lover, 
the  Snake.  The  hero  is  sent  in  search  of  '  a  healing  and  a 
vivifying  water/  preserved  between  two  lofty  mountains 
which  cleave  closely  together,  except  during  '  two  or  three 
minutes '  of  each  day.  He  follows  his  instructions,  rides  to 
a  certain  spot,  and  there  awaits  the  hour  at  which  the  moun- 
tains fly  apart.  '  Suddenly  a  terrible  hurricane  arose,  a 
mighty  thunder  smote,  and  the  two  mountains  were  torn 
asunder.  Prince  Ivan  4  spurred  his  heroic  steed,  flew  like 
a  dart  between  the  mountains,  dipped  two  flasks  in  the  waters, 
and  instantly  turned  back.'  He  himself  escapes  safe  and 
sound,  but  the  hind  legs  of  his  horse  are  caught  between  the 
closing  cliffs  and  smashed  to  pieces.  The  magic  waters,  of 
course,  soon  remedy  this  temporary  inconvenience. 

"  In  a  Slovak  version  of  this  story,  a  murderous  mother 
sends  her  son  to  two  mountains,  each  of  which  is  cleft  open 
once  in  every  twenty-four  hours,  the  one  opening  at  midday 
and  the  other  at  midnight ;  the  former  disclosing  the  Water 
of  Life,  the  latter  the  Water  of  Death.  In  a  similar  story 
from  the  Ukraine,  mention  is  made  of  two  springs  of  healing 

*Ivan  was  the  sun,  as  we  shall  see  later  in  chapter  xxi,  on  the 
Russian  Myths. 


280  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

and  life-giving  water,  which  are  guarded  by  iron-beaked 
ravens,  and  the  way  to  which  lies  between  grinding  hills. 
The  Fox  and  the  Hare  are  sent  in  quest  of  the  magic  fluid. 
The  Fox  goes  and  returns  in  safety,  but  the  Hare,  on  her  way 
back,  is  not  in  time  quite  to  clear  the  meeting  cliffs,  and  her 
tail  is  jammed  between  them.  Since  that  time  hares  have 
had  no  tails."  5 

Hercules  first  appeared  in  this  opening  between  the 
snakes,  but  afterwards,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  made  subject 
to  Eurystheus.  Under  him,  his  first  task  was  to  slay  the 
Nemean  Lion  of  the  skies.  This  cloud-lion  was  so  thick  that 
no  solar  arrows  could  penetrate  through  him,  and  as  he  did 
not  live  on  earth  no  iron  could  pierce  him.  Hercules,  after 
his  victory,  wore  his  skin  as  a  trophy.  It  was  a  sun-obscuring 
veil,  and,  though  conquered,  was  still  in  evidence.  The  shirt 
given  him  by  his  wife,  Dejanira,  was  of  the  same  char- 
acter, but  as  it  fitted  more  closely  its  venomed  poison  is  said 
to  have  caused  his  death,  the  canopy  burning  as  a  funeral 
pile. 

The  lurid  storm-cloud  in  Finnish  poetry  is  somewhat 
similar  to  this  conception.  It  is  Ukk's  fiery  shirt.  Again, 
in  Homer,  Ino  is  given  by  Odysseus  a  scarf  veil,  which  line 
of  light*  was  afterwards  seen  issuing  from  her  bright  face 
across  the  waters;  it  guided  the  hero  to  land. 

"  Zas,  i.e.,  Zeus,"  says  Pherekydes  of  Skyros,  "  makes  a 


6  W.  R.  S.  Ralston,  "  Russian  Fairy  Tales  and  Muscovite  Folk-Lore," 
ch.  iv.  "  Magic  and  Witchcraft,"  Afanasyeff,  vi,  p.  249.  For  a  number 
of  interesting  legends,  collected  from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
world,  about  grinding  mountains  and  crashing  cliffs,  etc.,  see  Tylor's 
"  Primitive  Culture,"  pp.  313  ff.  After  quoting  three  mythic  descrip- 
tions found  among  the  Karens,  the  Algonquins,  and  the  Aztecs,  Mr. 
Tylor  remarks,  "On  the  suggestion  of  this  group  of  solar  conceptions 
and  that  of  Maui's  death,  we  may  perhaps  explain  as  derived  from  a 
broken-down  fancy  of  solar-myth,  that  famous  episode  of  Greek  legend, 
where  the  good  ship  Argo  passed  between  the  Symplggades,  those  two 
huge  cliffs  that  opened  and  closed  again  with  swift  and  violent 
collision." 


HERCULES  281 

veil  large  and  beautiful,  and  works  on  it  Earth  and  Ogenos, 
i.e.,  Okeanos."  Ogen  includes  here,  "  the  Oversea,  and  we 
have  again  in  this  the  starry  pepl&s."  "  The  veil,"  says 
Pherekydes,  "  Zas  hangs  on  a  winged  oak." 

"  In  the  Veda  the  mothers  '  weave  a  coat  for  their  bright 
sons  ? ;  Penelope  plies  at  her  loom  upon  the  web  that  is  never 
finished,  the  clouds ;  and  in  the  Finnish  poetry  '  the  fair 
virgins  of  the  air,  the  rich  and  gorgeous  sun,  the  gentle  beam- 
ing moon/  '  wove  with  the  golden  shuttle  and  the  silver 
comb/  This,  the  clouds,  was  the  garment  that  envelops  the 
dying  hero.  The  death  was  like  the  departure  of  Quetzal- 
coatl  on  Mount  Orizaba,  like  that  of  the  hero  in  Beowulf, 
who,  as  the  historians  say,  burnt  by  the  seashore  '  wand  to 
wolcum/ — curled  to  the  clouds."  6 

A  similar  myth  to  that  of  Hercules,  which  also  begins 
with  wrapping  the  infant  sun  up  in  a  lion  skin,  has  been  pre- 
served by  the  North  American  Indians  in  the  account  of 
'  Tulchuherris  '  (sun-child),  whose  name  "  etymologically," 
says  Curtin,  "means  a  person  or  thing  that  has  been  dug 
up."  7  That  is,  he  was  brought  forth  out  of  the  canopy  and 
was  found  by  an  old  woman,  Pom  Pokaila,  who  immediately 
"  took  the  buckskin  apron  (lion  skin)  from  her  back,  laid  it 
on  the  ground,  put  the  little  boy  in  it,  and  wrapped  him  up 
carefully." 

When  found,  "  the  baby's  head,  as  she  raised  him  to  the 
surface,  was  to  the  east,  his  feet  to  the  west;  underground 
his  head  was  to  the  south,  and  his  feet  to  the  north."  8  Tak- 
ing some  liberties  with  the  word  '  underground,'  we  under- 
stand the  passage  as  follows:  Before  he  was  dug  out  from 
under  the  canopy  his  light  or  head  was  daily  seen;  first  in 
the  south,  where  naturally  the  cloud-blanket  was  first  illu- 
minated by  the  hidden  sun  shining  from  the  under  world, 

6 Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  54,  172. 
7 "Creation  Myths   of  Primitive  America,"  p.   122. 
*IUd.,  p.   122. 


2S2  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

and  this  light  as  day  advanced  spread  towards  the  north 
(his  feet).  After  he  was  dug  up,  of  course,  he  was  seen  to 
rise  in  the  east  and  set  in  the  west  (his  feet). 

Tulchuherris  also  accomplished  certain  wonderful  labors. 
We  will  enumerate  thirteen  of  them.  First,  he  came  to  a 
place  where  there  was  a  great  rock  standing  straight  up  in 
front  of  him  in  his  road.  He  looked  everywhere  for  a  pas- 
sage, but  could  see  none.  He  looked  on  the  left  side — all 
was  dark;  on  the  right — all  was  dark.  Clearly  this  is  a 
description  of  the  equatorial  canopy  split.  Many  were  killed 
here,  the  danger  being  that  the  rock  would  sway  to  and  crunch 
the  adventurer.  "  In  one  flash,"  the  myth  says,  "  you  will 
be  thrown  into  a  dark  place,  at  the  side  where  you  cannot  see 
bottom."  Tulchuherris  kicked  the  rock  over.9 

In  the  second  labor  he  wounded  a  man  in  the  big  river.10 
In  the  third  he  jumped  between  the  crunching  tree,  which 
is  another  simile  for  the  equatorial  opening.  The  legend 
says :  "  When  any  one  was  passing,  and  half-way  through 
the  cleft,  the  pine  closed  and  crushed  him."  n  Fourth,  his 
dogs  killed  grizzly  bears  and  rattlers  (cloud-forms).12 
Fifth,  he  killed  spiders  and  smoked  with  Sas,  the  old  canopy 
shiner  or  original  sun.  Sas  could  not  stand  Tulchuherris's 
pipe;  the  smoke  choked  him — a  veritable  reality.13  Sixth, 
he  killed  Sas's  old  woman.14  Seventh,  he  dodged  knives, 
i.e.,  shafts  of  bright  light.15  In  the  myths  of  a  great  many 
other  lands  we  have  this  same  scene  depicted.  The  shafts 
of  light  being  called  arrows,  swords,  etc. 

Special  reference  may  be  made  to  the  magic  sword. 
"  Perseus  is  armed  with  it,  Tiarpe,  the  gift  to  him  of  Hermes, 
and  it  slays  whatsoever  it  falls  upon.  Theseus  has  it  welded 
of  the  same  metal  with  the  spear  of  Achilles,  the  arrows  of 
Phoibos,  the  good  sword  Gram,  buried  to  its  hilt  in  the  tree 

9  Ibid.,  pp.  130,  131.         ™Ibid.,  pp.  132,  133.          *  Ibid.,  p.  134. 
12 Ibid.,  pp.  135,  136.        "Ibid.,  pp.  136-138.          "Ibid.,  p.  138. 
,  p.  139. 


HERCULES  283 

trunk  and  waiting  for  Volsung  to  draw  it  out ;  it  is  Arthur's 
brand  Excalibur,  and  Roland's  Durandal,  and  the  enchanted 
sword  with  which  Beowulf  kills  Grendel.  And  we  find  it 
again  in  the  sword  Tirfing  in  the  fairy  tale.  It  is  the  (  Glaive 
of  Light '  in  the  Scotch  story,  obtained  for  the  giant  by  the 
young  king  Easaidh  Ruadh.  In  the  case  of  Excalibur,  the 
weapon  was  thrown  by  command  of  Arthur  about  to  die, 
into  the  lake;  a  hand  and  arm  were  seen  to  rise  from  the 
water,  flourish  it  thrice,  and  then  sink  into  the  lake,  where  it 
was  seen  no  more."  16 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  outside  of  the  Indian  legend 
for  illustrations  of  the  bright  sun-shafts.  Tulchuherris's 
weapons  include  a  sky  spear-pole,  a  sky  spear-head,  a  sky- 
strap,  a  spear-pole,  his  quiver,  and  his  bow.17  In  connection 
with  the  quiver  Curtin  says: 

"  In  Indian  myths  from  ISTew  York  to  California  the 
porcupine  is  ever  connected  with  light;  in  some  cases  it  is 
the  sun  himself.  In  '  Tulchuherris '  *  *  *  Sas  (the 
sun)  carries  a  porcupine  quiver,  and  is  advised  never  to  lay 
it  aside,  for  as  long  as  he  keeps  it  on  his  shoulder  he  is  safe 
from  his  children,  the  grizzlies,  (the  clouds),  who  wish  to 
kill  him."  18 

In  the  eighth  labor  Tulchuherris  escaped  from  the  sweat- 
house.  "  I  swim  in  the  river  every  morning.  We  will  sweat, 
and  then  swim,"  said  Sas.19  Ninth :  He  killed  more  rattlers 
('  pets  ')  in  a  tree.  After  this  act  he  got  down  from  the  tree 
by  using  a  e  sky-strap.'  In  the  legend  the  scene  is  depicted  as 
follows : 

"  Tulchuherris  stretched  his  hand  toward  the  west,  where 
his  grandmother  was,  and  immediately  something  came  with 
a  whirr  and  a  flutter,  and  settled  on  his  arm  like  a  bird.  It 
was  a  sky-strap,  blue  like  the  sky,  narrow  and  very  strong. 

"Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  162-163. 
17 "  Creation  Myths  of  Primitive  America,"  p.  28. 
18  Ibid.,  p.  500.       u  Ibid.9  p.  139. 


984  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

He  fastened  one  end  of  it  to  the  limb,  knotting  it  in  such  a 
way  that  he  could  untie  it  with  a  jerk  at  the  other  end.  He 
slipped  down  on  it,  and  when  on  the  ground  jerked  it  loose. 
He  strung  the  snakes  on  the  long  bone,  they  were  all  dead, 
and  carried  them  to  Sas's  house."  20 

Tenth :  He  killed  grizzly  bears  (clouds)  in  a  narrow  pass, 
which  may  be  identified  with  the  canopy  slit.21  Eleventh: 
He  killed  bears  (clouds)  and  snakes  (vapor-belts  or  annular 
ultra  atmospheric  arcs)  at  a  spring,  evidently  located  in  the 
sky  land.  All  these  doings  seem  to  be  associated  with  water, 
but  as  water  did  not  exist  in  the  sky  except  as  vapor  belts 
at  great  altitudes,  held  in  suspension  under  the  canopy,  and 
also  as  at  present  in  the  form  of  ordinary  clouds,  it  follows 
that  the  appearance  alone  is  the  real  reason  why  the  ancients 
believed  that  they  were  covered  by  a  firmament  of  water.  In 
this  labor  Tulchuherris  opened  the  spring,  bringing  forth  a 
clear,  cold  stream.22 

Twelfth:  He  killed  Supchit,  Sas's  son,  who  was  a  fish 
like  Ea,  of  the  Babylonian  pantheon.  "  i  Very  well/  answered 
Tulchuherris,  who  put  his  foot  on  the  end  of  the  bridge  and 
crossed  with  one  spring.  On  the  other  side  he  went  to  the 
fishing-hut,  fixed  so  that  a  man  could  look  up  and  down  the 
river  while  fishing.  Tulchuherris  had  his  own  spear-shaft, 
a  sky-pole ;  the  string  was  a  sky-strap.  He  had  his  own  point, 
too.  He  waited  for  fish,  and  at  last  saw  something  come 
slowly  from  the  south."  *  *  *  "  I  am  sorry  for  you, 
my  brother-in-law,"  said  Tulchuherris.  "  I  hate  to  kill  you, 
but  I  must,  for  my  father-in-law  sent  me  to  kill  you."  23 
Like  Hercules,  Tulchuherris  had  to  obey  his  master,  so  he 
speared  Supchit. 

Thirteenth:  He  played  with  the  springing  tree  and 
divided  old  Sas,  the  false  and  vain  (canopy  shiner)  chief  of 
Saskewil,  into  his  present  form  of  sun  and  moon.24 


"JfttU,  pp.  142-145.  nn>id.,   145-146.  » Ibid.,  p.   148. 

28  Ibid.,  p.  150.  "*/&*&,  pp.   152-157. 


HERCULES  285 

Another  legend  which  resembles  the  Hercules  myth  is 
found  amongst  the  Yamas.  It  is  entitled,  "  The  Dream  of 
Juiwaiyu,  and  His  Journey  to  Damhauja's  Country/'  25  but 
we  cannot  take  the  space  for  its  proper  analysis. 

It  is  wonderful  how  many  details  of  canopy-decline  our 
Amerinds  have  retained.  These  same  Yamas  tell  us  in  the 
myth  of  "  The  Winning  of  Halai  Auna  "  that  "  the  great 
sweat-house  of  the  sun  is  the  dome  of  heaven."  It  is  a 
description  of  the  canopy  drifting  slowly  northwards,  and 
again,  had  we  space,  its  analysis  would  be  very  profitable. 
In  this  legend  says  Curtin :  "  The  shooting  of  Wakara  into 
the  sky  is  a  curious  variant  of  the  tree-bending  by  Tulchu- 
herris  and  Sas  in  the  Wintu  myth.26 

Upturning  to  the  myth  of  our  Grecian  Hero,  we  find  that 
in  his  second  labor  he  had  to  fight  against  the  Hydra,  the 
many-headed  serpent  of  the  clouds.  This  monster  was  the 
offspring  of  Typhon  and  Echidna,  with  whom  we  have 
already  become  acquainted.27  The  fight  began  by  Hercules 
cutting  off  the  heads  of  some  of  these  serpents,  but  he  soon 
found  that  for  every  head  cut  off  two  fresh  heads  started  up, 
and  to  increase  his  difficulties  a  huge  crab  (emblem  of  the 
backward  motion  of  the  canopy)  fastened  on  his  heel. 
Changing  his  form  of  attack,  Hercules  now  took  sun-fire 
with  which  he  seared  each  head  as  he  cut  it  off,  thus  pre- 
venting its  regrowth.  When  he  came  to  the  last  head  he 
found  it  invulnerable  (our  present  storm  clouds  cannot  be 
conquered),  so  he  took  this  last  head  and  cast  it  down  from 


25  Hid.,  p.  425  if.        » /&«?.,  p.  520. 

27  It  will  be  remembered  that  Echidna  was  not  only  the  reputed 
mother  of  the  Hydra,  but  also  of  Chimera,  and  of  the  many-headed  dog 
Orthos,  of  the  three  hundred-headed  dragon,  of  the  Hesperides,  of  the 
Colchian  dragon,  of  the  Sphinx,  of  Cerberus,  of  Scylla,  of  the  Gorgons, 
of  the  vulture  that  gnawed  away  the  liver  of  Prometheus,  and  of  the 
Nemean  lion;  in  fact,  the  mother  of  all  adversity  and  tribulation.  In 
one  word,  she  was  the  canopy,  and,  like  Ishtar  of  Chaldea,  was  the 
mother  of  all  evil. 


286  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

its  high  position,  burying  it  under  a  rock  by  the  road-side, 
whence  it  waters  all  the  regions  of  the  earth. 

This  last  storm-head  is  vividly  pictured  by  the  Shoshone 
Indians,  who  conceive  the  domed  firmament  to  be  ice :  "  It 
has  the  color  of  ice, — and  from  time  to  time,  as  they  have  it, 
a  monster  serpent-god  coils  his  immense  back  up  against  the 
firmament,  and  with  his  scales  scratches  and  wears  off  its 
face.  The  ice-dust  that  falls  we  see  in  the  winter  as  snow; 
in  the  summer  season,  melting  during  its  descent,  it  comes 
as  rain."  28  It  was  natural  for  the  succeeding  generations 
to  attempt  to  find  the  old  canopy  scenes  still  in  the  sky,  for 
all  their  legends  told  them  so  plainly  of  the  past. 

Our  heroes'  third  labor  was  to  bring  back  alive  a  certain 
wild  boar.  The  furrowed  sky  was  called  in  those  times  a 
boar.  In  the  Hindu  legend  we  read  of  a  similar  exploit. 
Rama,  the  sun-god,  lost  his  wife,  whose  name  was  Sita,  which 
signifies  '  a  furrow.'  The  demon  who  stole  her  away  bore 
her  struggling  through  the  air.29  Hercules  in  the  same 
manner  carried  his  boar  to  Eurystheus,  the  master  of  the  sky 
(and  his  master  also),  but  the  wild  nature  of  the  thing  so 
alarmed  him  that  he,  the  timid  Eurystheus,  hid  himself 
behind  the  brazen  clouds.  Some  say  he  placed  himself  inside 
a  large  bronze  vessel.  This  brazen  receptacle  of  the  canopy 
was  also  called  a  hogshead.  In  the  case  where  Danae  was 
shut  up  by  her  father,  it  was  called  a  tower  of  brass.  Into 
this  hogshead  Hercules  then  threw  the  porcus  plowed  land  of 
celestial  scenes. 


28 Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  p.  23. 

29  The  battle  was  a  terrible  one.  The  details  show  clearly  that  the 
legend  is  derived  from  the  same  source  as  the  Hercules  myth.  It  is 
the  battle  of  our  Grecian  hero  with  Hydra  over  again.  The  terrible 
monster's  name  who  thus  stole  Sita  away  was  Havana.  He  had  ten 
heads,  and  as  fast  as  Rama,  the  sun-god,  cut  them  off,  another  grew 
in  its  place.  Finally  it  was  necessary  to  consume  his  body  by  fire, 
and  Sita,  the  furrowed  sky,  had  to  undergo  this  ordeal  also,  but  she 
came  out  of  it  purified  and  redeemed  from  all  taint. 


HERCULES  287 

On  his  way  back  from  this  labor  a  story  is  told  of  how  he 
visited  a  Centaur  named  Phohis.  While  they  were  dining 
in  his  cave  home  the  strong  aroma  of  the  wine  attracted  the 
other  Centaurs,  who  forthwith  collected  together  and  offered 
Hercules  battle.  Their  mothers,  who  are  plainly  called  the 
clouds,  helped  them  by  sending  a  flood  of  water.30 

In  the  fourth  labor  the  stag  which  belonged  to  Diana, 
vapor-moon,  goddess  of  the  silver-crescent  ring,31  was  chased 
for  one  whole  year  by  our  hero.  The  stag  who  was  '  fleet 
of  foot '  was  the  hurried  skies,  and  yet  he  was  tamed  and  in 
the  end  brought  into  subjection  by  Hercules,  who,  like 
(Edipus,  was  '  slow  of  foot.' 

In  the  next  labor  the  Stymphalides  birds  were  driven 
away  by  sun-darts.  Their  character  as  vapor  monsters  of  the 
sky  is  shown  by  the  statement  that  "  their  great  wide  wings 


30  Hellas  has  two  versions  of  a  flood,  one  associated  with  Ogyges, 
the  other,  of  a  far  more  elaborate  form,  with  Deucalion.  This  latter 
name  is  only  another  name  for  Noah.  Jupiter  summoned  the  gods  to 
council  and  told  them  that  he  had  resolved  to  drown  the  earth.  "  The 
north  wind,  which  scatters  the  clouds,  was  chained  up;  the  south  was 
sent  out,  and  soon  covered  all  the  face  of  heaven  with  a  cloak 
of  pitchy  darkness."  *  *  *  "  Jupiter,  not  satisfied  with  his  own  waters, 
calls  on  his  brother  Neptune  to  aid  him  with  his.  He  lets  loose  the 
rivers,  and  pours  them  over  the '  land.  At  the  same  time  he 
heaves  the  land  with  an  earthquake,  and  brings  in  the  reflux 
of  the  ocean  over  the  shores."  (Bulfinch,  "The  Age  of  Fable," 
tr.,  Scott,  pp.  24-25.)  This  all  recalls  to  mind  the  secondary 
causes  mentioned  in  our  scientific  chapters.  The  story  goes  on  to  say 
that  this  flood  swept  away  the  whole  human  race  except  one  pair, 
Deucalion  and  Pyrrha,  who,  as  the  waters  abated,  landed  on  Mount 
Parnassus. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  India  also  there  are  accounts  of 
two  different  floods.  "  In  the  Varaha,  or  third  avatar,  Vishnu  appeared 
as  a  boar  to  save  the  earth  when  it  had  been  drowned  a  second  time. 
The  boar  went  into  the  sea  and  fished  the  earth  out  on  his  tusks." 
(Murray,  "Manual  of  Mythology,"  20th  ed.,  p.  380.) 

81  Originally  the  moon,  so-called,  was  a  crescent  form  of  the  canopy. 
After  the  precipitation  of  the  vapor  the  only  crescent  form  left  in  the 
sky  was  our  satellite. 


288  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

stretched  across  the  heavens  and  obscured  the  sun."  When 
the  cloud  winds  blew  every  line  became  a  flying  spear — sun- 
darts. 

The  sixth  labor  describes  the  clearing  out  of  the  Augean 
Stables.  Augeus  means  "  a  being  of  pure  streaming  light." 
At  one  time  the  canopy  was  the  only  source  of  light ;  it  was 
known  to  the  ancients  as  the  sun  and  at  night  was  their 
moon.  The  cattle  were  clouds.  To  clean  out  their  stable 
Hercules  simply  opened  the  wall  of  the  canopy  (stable)  and 
let  a  rushing  sky-stream  flow  through  which  quickly  washed 
away  the  filth,  dark  clouds  and  all. 

Hesiod  says:  "Poseidon  (Neptune)  was  a  bull/'  and 
we  have  found  out  that  bulls  were  guardians  or  haloes  accom- 
panying the  glowing  sun.  In  the  seventh  labor  Hercules 
was  required  to  bring  the  Cretan  Bull  bound  into  Mycenne. 
He  forced  the  beast,  who  was  the  offspring  of  Neptune,  to 
leave  the  herd  of  celestial  cattle  sacred  to  Helios  (Sol),  and 
then  made  it  swim  across  the  canopy,  the  great  sea  of  waters ; 
thus  he  performed  his  task.  The  eighth  labor  was  similar: 
our  hero  conquered  the  swift  horses  of  Diomedes,  which  were 
fleeting  vapors  of  the  canopy. 

Terrific  grandeur  and  destructive  power 
Marked  their  career  as  rushing  on  they  went, 
Fire   breathing,   plunging,    dashing,    snorting   loud — 
The  soul  of  the  great  deep  was  in  their  might, 
As  sound  of  many  waters,  hoof  on  hoof. 

The  ninth  task  was  to  procure  the  girdle  of  Hippolyta, 
Queen  of  the  Amazons.  This  girdle  was  a  present  from 
Ares  (Mars),  god  of  war  and  of  the  storm.  Eurystheus, 
owner  of  the  sky,  wanted  it  for  his  daughter,  Admeta.  No 
doubt  he  thought  she  would  look  very  fine  girdled  with  the 
world-ring  or,  as  it  is  often  called,  '  the  serpent  coil  of  cloud/ 
She  was  the  goddess  of  the  lower  air,  and  when  Hercules 
brought  it  to  her  she  put  it  on  and  has  worn  it  ever  since, 
signifying  that  the  storm-fiend  had  descended  into  the  lower 
regions,  where  now  the  tempest  raves. 


HERCULES  289 

Admeta  or  the  deadly  shade  has  passed — 
The  girdles  gone,  and  yet  it  still  remains, 
For,  like  the  Hydra's  one  immortal  head, 
It  waters,  yea,  still  waters,  all  the  earth. 

To  conquer  the  flesh-eating  oxen  (clouds)  of  Geryon, 
Eurystheus  sent  our  hero  to  the  Western  Isle.  This  locality 
is  the  cave-hole  of  northern  mythology,  the  egg-hole,  the 
place  of  the  one  eye,  the  Cyclops,  etc.  The  mighty  and  brave 
Hercules  took  a  ship  (halo-boat)  in  order  to  reach  this  far-off 
region,  as  he  had  to  pass  back  of  the  great  belt  that  encircled 
the  middle  regions  of  the  earth.  When  he  arrived  at  his 
destination  he  fought  against  the  owner  of  the  strong  black 
cattle  with  his  fire,  and  it  is  recorded  that  a  sun-shaft  finally 
killed  him.  On  his  way  home  a  gadfly  caused  his  cattle  to 
scatter  in  the  great  cloud  mountains  of  the  canopy  (the  great 
middle  belt).  Zeus  was  the  clear-sky,  and  the  record  says 
they  ran  to  him. 

In  the  eleventh  labor  we  have  another  adventure  con- 
nected with  the  egg-hole  land  of  the  north.  Here  the  golden 
apples  of  the  Hesperides  were  seen  to  glitter  on  the  world- 
tree.  These  were  the  stars  seen  in  their  purity  in  the  blue 
sky.  This  incident  is  no  doubt  derived  from  the  same 
phenomena  as  those  which  gave  rise  to  the  Babylonian  myth. 
In  the  Ninth  Tablet  of  Gilgamesh,  that  hero  is  represented 
as  going  on  a  long  journey  to  see  his  ancestor,  Tsit-napishtim. 
It  was  a  very  difficult  excursion,  and  he  was  forced  at  one 
time  to  march  onwards  for  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours 
through  a  region  of  thick  darkness,  which  we  understand  as 
portraying  a  country  darkened  by  a  falling  vapor-belt  (the 
great  middle  belt,  that  is,  of  middle  latitudes).  But  at  the 
end  of  this  long,  dreadful  journey  he  came  out  once  more 
into  the  light  of  the  sun,  and,  behold,  there  was  a  beautiful 
tree,  the  top  of  which  was  lapis  lazuli,  and  it  was  laden  with 
fruit  which  dazzled  the  eye. 

These  stars  are  connected  with  a  great  many  myths. 
Ignatius  Donnelly  says :  "  This  is  the  same  legend  which 
19 


290  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

we  see  appearing  in  so  many  places  and  in  so  many  forms. 
The  apple  of  Paradise  was  one  of  the  apples  of  the  Greek 
legends,  intrusted  to  the  Hesperides,  but  which  they  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  pluck  and  eat.  The  serpent 
Ladon  watched  the  tree. 

"  It  was  one  of  the  apples  of  Idun,  in  the  Norse  legends, 
the  wife  of  Brage,  the  god  of  poetry  and  eloquence.  She 
keeps  them  in  a  box,  and  when  the  gods  feel  the  approach  of 
old  age  they  have  only  to  taste  them  and  become  young  again. 
Loke,  the  evil-one,  the  Norse  devil,  tempted  Idun  to  come 
into  a  forest  with  her  apples,  to  compare  them  with  some 
others,  whereupon  a  giant  called  Thjasse,  in  the  appearance 
of  an  enormous  eagle,  flew  down,  seized  Idun  and  her  apples, 
and  carried  them  away,  like  Havana,  into  the  air.  The  gods 
compelled  Loke  to  bring  her  back,  for  they  were  the  apples 
of  the  tree  of  life  to  them ;  without  them  they  were  perishing. 
Loke  stole  Idun  from  Thjasse,  changed  her  into  a  nut,  and 
fled  with  her,  pursued  by  Thjasse.  The  gods  kindled  a  great 
fire,  the  eagle  plumage  of  Thjasse  caught  the  flames,  he  fell 
to  the  earth,  and  was  slain  by  the  gods."  32 

But  the  consideration  of  these  legends  is  leading  us  away 
from  the  eleventh  labor.  Eurystheus  demanded  that  our 
hero  should  procure  these  apples  (stars)  for  him.  Before 
Hercules  could  accomplish  this  feat  he  found  it  necessary  to 
kill  a  great  dragon  snake  which  guarded  the  tree  whereon  the 
apples  grew.  Some  say  that  Atlas  plucked  the  fruit  for  him 
while  he  upheld  the  great  hill  of  the  middle  canopy.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  when  the  apples  were  procured  Hercules 
presented  them  to  his  master,  the  first  fruits  from  the  great 
real  world  beyond. 

The  twelfth  and  last  labor  was  to  bring  from  Hades 
(which,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  located  in  the  canopy) 
Cerberus,  the  three-headed  dog,  with  the  tail  of  a  serpent 
and  with  bristling  snakes  round  his  neck.  This  description 

82 "  Ragnarok,"  p.  324. 


HERCULES  291 

shows  what  manner  of  sky-dog  he  was.  As  he  brought  this 
monster  forth,  the  shades  of  darkness  fled  in  terror,  never- 
theless Hercules  kept  straight  on  through  a  chasm  which  he 
rent  right  through  the  canopy.  This  done  and  all  vapor-forms 
conquered,  of  course  our  hero,  the  sun,  came  forth  free  from 
the  enthralling  belts.  It  is  recorded  that  he  joined  the 
Argonauts  and  sailed  in  their  ship,  the  Argo,  which  was  a 
vapor-arc,  arch  or  ark.  He  brought  back  with  him  the  golden 
fleece,  the  bright  sunshine  like  sky-gem,  and  was  free  indeed. 
And  yet  the  story  of  his  captivity  has  lived  on  down  through 
the  ages. 

In  Persian  literature  the  great  hero  Eustam  accomplishes 
the  same  series  of  victories  that  marked  the  career  of  Her- 
cules. Poor  says  of  him: 

"  He  is  a  compound  of  Herakles  the  Greek  and  Eoland 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  we  shall  see  later.  His  infancy  is 
protected  by  a  marvelous  bird — the  Simurgh.  He  is  like  the 
bird  Garuda  in  Sanskrit,  and  develops  into  the  roc  of  the 
Arabian  ISTights.  When  an  infant  only  he  performs  prodigies 
of  valor,  like  Herakles;  when  a  child,  he  kills  an  elephant. 
When  grown  up,  the  king  and  his  army  being  shut  up  in  the 
demon  country  by  the  king  of  Turan  and  his  Divs,  Eustam, 
all  alone,  performs  seven  labors  and  frees  the  king.  This  is 
again  like  Herakles.  But  Eustam  is  as  pious  as  he  is  brave. 
He  prays  to  his  god  before  every  encounter,  and  gives  thanks 
after  every  victory.  He  has  a  marvelous  horse,  whom  he 
loves  more  than  wife  or  child.  These  traits  suggest  Eoland. 
He  is,  in  fact,  a  perfect  type  of  the  mediaeval  hero,  except  in 
one  thing,  his  indifference  to  women:  he  leaves  his  young 
wife,  the  daughter  of  a  king,  to  look  for  his  horse,  which  had 
strayed  away,  and  never  goes  back  to  her,  although  he  kindly 
sends  once  to  inquire  for  her.  !N"ow,  many  of  these  traits 
identify  him  at  once  as  a  solar  myth.  If  he  is  so  much  more 
pious  than  the  Greek  hero,  it  is  that  he  expresses  the  simple 
faith  of  the  noble  Persian  character.  His  marvelous  strength 


292  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

when  an  infant  is  the  power  of  the  sun,  resistless  even  at  its 
rising;  the  seven  labors  which  he  performs  for  the  good  of 
others,  the  demons  which  he  slays,  are  the  dark  clouds  which 
obstruct  his  path.  When  in  the  middle  of  his  life,  Rustam 
feels  that  his  labors  for  others  have  not  been  appreciated, 
and  he  sits  apart,  gloomy  and  sullen,  in  his  tent,  while  the 
war  goes  on.  This  will  at  once  suggest  the  wrath  of  Achilles. 
It  is  the  dark  cloud  again  obscuring  the  beneficent  sun." 
*  #  *  a  ^n(j  af.  la^  wnen  Rustam  dies,  he  is  not  killed 
in  fair  fight,  but  in  ambush — like  Siegfried,  slain  from 
behind."  33 

Poor  goes  on  to  say :  "  There  is  another  hero  in  the 
Shah  Nameh,  named  Isfendiyar — also  a  solar  myth,  because 
he  can  be  slain  only  by  an  arrow  from  a  particular  tree,  the 
thorn;  this  is  the  same  thorn  which  killed  Siegfried  in 
German,  the  mistletoe  which  killed  Balder  in  Norse,  the  thorn 
which  pricks  the  sleeping  beauty."  34 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  legend  of  Roland  has  been 
handed  down  to  the  Middle  Ages.  It  illustrates  the  process 
by  which  these  myths  have  survived  and  been  embellished 
up  to  our  own  time.  Poor  tells  us  that: 

"  Roland  has  the  characteristics  of  the  solar  myth.  True, 
he  may  have  really  lived ;  but  no  real  man,  no  real  weapon, 
could  ever  have  performed  the  prodigies  of  valor  which 
Roland  and  his  good  sword  did.  The  sword,  too,  was  brought 
to  him  in  a  miraculous  way.  It  is  not  the  pagan  way  in 
which  Perseus  and  Sigurd  got  their  swords.  It  is  the  Chris- 
tian way,  which  performed  all  the  other  miracles  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  And  the  Song  of  Roland  is  so  delightful 
because  it  has  this  new  tone,  and  because  it  sustains  this 
tone  so  perfectly  throughout ;  all  the  prodigies  are  impressed 
with  it.  Still,  they  are  prodigies,  not  natural  acts.  ~No  hero 
could,  single-handed,  kill  four  hundred  men  at  a  stroke, 

88 "Sanskrit  and  its  Kindred  Literatures/'  pp.  159-160. 
p.  161. 


HERCULES  293 

after  his  skull  was  split  open.  But  if  you  look  at  Roland  as 
a  solar  hero,  the  work  would  be  easy  indeed  for  the  irre- 
sistible power  of  the  sun.  Roland's  death,  too,  is  super- 
natural. He  has  not  one  scratch  on  his  body,  though  his 
armor  is  pierced  with  a  thousand  darts.  His  skull  splits 
open  from  excessive  toil;  his  brains  ooze  slowly  out.  With 
his  death  his  sword  must  go  too.  No  other  can  wield  it. 
With  the  death  of  the  sun,  its  rays  no  longer  shoot  across  the 
sky."  35 

We  will  be  pardoned  if  we  again  quote  from  Poor.  Our 
author  says :  "  Another  hero  of  the  Charlemagne  cycle  is 
Olger  the  Dane,  the  national  hero  of  Denmark;  and  he  rep- 
resents many  other  features  of  the  solar  myth."  *  *  * 
"  Olger  grows  up  beautiful  and  strong,  but  is  sent  as  a 
hostage  to  the  court  of  Charlemagne.  Here  he  labors  for 
others,  like  the  other  solar  heroes,  and  fights  for  beings 
meaner  than  himself."  *  *  *  "  A  Saracen  giant  appears, 
and  Olger  kills  him.  Then  the.  emperor  does  him  a  wrong ; 
and  his  anger,  like  the  wrath  of  Achilles  and  Rustam,  makes 
itself  felt.  He  goes  out  into  the  world  as  a  wanderer,  and 
travels  far  and  wide,  like  Odysseus.  Finally,  he  longs  to  see 
his  land  again,  and  sets  sail ;  but  the  ship  is  wrecked.  The 
waves  bear  him  to  a  strange  land,  where  a  stately  palace 
stands ;  this  like  the  palace  on  Kirke's  isle.  At  morning  he 
finds  a  flowery  vale ;  and  Morgan  le  Fay  comes  to  him,  and 
welcomes  him  to  Avalon,  and  takes  him  to  the  palace,  where 
he  finds  Arthur  healed  of  his  wound.  Then  Morgan  gives 
him  a  wreath  of  forgetfulness  for  his  forehead,  and  an 
enchanted  ring  for  his  hand ;  while  he  wears  these,  he  never 
grows  old.  By  and  by  the  wreath  slips  from  his  forehead, 
and  he  remembers  Charlemagne,  and  longs  to  go  back  and 
fight  the  Saracen.  So  he  reappears,  like  Rip  Van  Winkle. 
That  is,  the  sun  comes  back,  after  being  carried  away  by  the 


''Hid.,  pp.  356-357. 


294  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

darkness.  Morgan  le  Fay  had  given  him  a  torch,  which  is 
the  measure  of  his  days,  like  the  firebrand  of  Meleagros  in 
Greek.  While  it  burns,  he  can  never  die.  He  fights  as 
bravely  as  before,  though  the  world  has  changed;  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  have  gone  by  while  he  was  gone  in  Avalon. 
When  he  is  about  to  wed  the  Empress  of  France,  Morgan 
le  Fay  appears  and  bears  him  away.  But  the  torch  is  still 
burning  in  an  abbey  crypt,  and  therefore  he  is  expected  to 
return;  like  Sebastian  of  Portugal,  and  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa,  and  Arthur  of  Brittany.  When  Denmark  is  in 
danger,  then  the  Danish  peasants  are  sure  that  Holger  Danske 
will  return. 

"  This  is  substantially  the  story  told  in  Germany,  later, 
of  Tannhauser.  Venus  carries  him  away  into  the  middle  of 
a  hill,  called  Horselberg.  There  he  lives  in  f orgetf ulness ; 
but  he  longs  at  length  to  return  to  a  life  of  virtue,  and  goes 
out  of  the  hill.  He  meets  a  priest  and  confesses  his  sin; 
but  the  horror-stricken  priest  tells  him  that  his  own  oaken 
staff  may  as  soon  bud  and  blossom  into  roses  as  his  sin  be 
absolved.  So  the  poor  Tannhauser  goes  back  to  the  enchant- 
ress. Eight  days  after,  the  staff  does  bud  and  blossom  into 
roses ;  and  all  the  people  expect  Tannhauser  to  reappear."  36 

It  is  interesting  to  note  what  Poor  has  to  say  about 
Arthur,  so  we  select  the  following: 

"  Arthur,  the  Christian  knight,  the  blameless  king,  was 
first  a  Keltic  hero,  sung  by  the  Druid  bards.  Shall  I  say 
more,  or  is  it  already  guessed  that  Arthur,  like  so  many  other 
Aryan  heroes,  is  only  the  sun  and  its  course  personified  in 
a  human  form  ?  It  is  beyond  doubt  that  Arthur  lived,  a  date 
is  even  fixed  for  him  at  542 ;  but  the  mind  of  his  race  could 
not  invent  new  facts  about  him.  Those  very  circumstances 
which  happen  to  each  Aryan  hero  fasten  themselves  upon 
him,  with  a  monotony  which  would  become  wearisome  had 


.,  pp.  357-359. 


HERCULES  295 

it  not  a  great  principle  lying  underneath  it.  Certainly,  if 
the  Kelts  had  imagined  a  hero,  they  would  have  found  some 
new  thing  for  him  to  do.  That  they  did  not  proves  that  they 
simply  formulated  the  thoughts  which  lie  dormant  in  each 
branch  of  the  race,  brought  from  its  home."  *  *  * 

"  We  will  therefore  separate  Arthur  from  the  knights 
who  surround  him,  and  look  at  his  story.  His  birth  was 
supernatural :  as  soon  as  he  was  born  he  was  wrapped  in  gold- 
colored  glittering  raiment,  and  taken  away  from  his 
mother."  *  *  * 

The  supernatural  manner  in  which  he  procured  his  bright 
sun-shaft  sword  was  as  follows :  "  The  lords  came  into  a 
church-yard,  and  there  stood  an  anvil  of  stone,  and  stuck 
therein  a  fair  sword,  naked  at  the  point,  and  letters  of  gold 
were  written  about  the  stone,  that  said :  "  Whoso  pulleth  out 
this  sword  out  of  this  stone  and  anvil  is  rightwise  born  king 
of  England.'  All  the  great  lords  try,  but  of  course  none  can 
pull  out  the  sword  but  Arthur.  This  is  exactly  the  story  of 
the  sword  in  the  Volsung  Saga,  and  somewhat  like  that  of 
the  sword  of  Theseus  in  Greek.  The  beard  and  hair  of 
Arthur  shine  like  gold,  and  the  nobles  are  forced  to  make  the 
beautiful  youth  their  king.  Then  enemies  attack  the  land, 
but  Arthur  draws  the  f  sword  that  flashed  in  the  eyes  of  his 
enemies  like  thirty  torches,'  and  kills  them  all.  Finally,  in 
battle,  this  sword  snaps,  like  the  sword  in  the  Yolsung  Saga. 
Then  a  maiden  out  of  the  water,  like  Thetis  in  Greek,  like 
Hiordis  in  Norse,  brings  him  another  sword.  While  she 
keeps  the  scabbard,  his  life  is  safe ;  he  can  neither  bleed  nor 
die ;  Arthur  thus  becomes  another  of  the  invulnerable  heroes. 
He  has  miraculous  powers  over  nature ;  an  owl,  a  blackbird, 
and  a  stag  talk  to  him,  and  do  his  bidding;  these  are  the 
same  talking  animals  which  we  meet  in  other  Aryan  litera- 
tures." *  *  * 

"  Merlin  warns  him  that  he  will  be  destroyed  by  his 
sister's  son,  who  will  be  born  on  May-day;  and  he  orders  all 


296  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  children  born  on  May-day  to  be  drowned.  But  Mordred 
escapes,  and  grows  up  to  kill  his  father.  This  brings  Arthur 
still  more  closely  within  the  mythical  framework."  *  *  * 

It  is  the  old  story  of  the  sun  marrying  the  canopy — of 
one  canopy-light  day  or  period  destroying  the  day  which 
preceded  it ;  and  shows  "  very  clearly  that  Arthur  was  a 
pagan  demigod  before  he  became  a  Christian  king."  * 

Arthur,  according  to  the  tale,  weds.  "  The  invading 
kings  ravage  the  land  again,  scarce  one  month  after  Arthur 
is  married :  and  he  cries  out  like  the  wanderer,  (  Never  have 
I  had  one  month's  rest  since  I  became  king  of  the  land/ 
So  Arthur's  life  goes  on  in  fighting;  finally  Lancelot  plays 
the  part  of  Paris  in  the  Iliad.  He  makes  Gwennivar  untrue 
to  her  husband,  and  a  last  great  battle  comes  between  the 
forces  of  the  two.  Here  the  myth  brings  in  the  snake.  There 
was  to  be  no  fighting  until  a  sword  should  be  raised;  but  a 
snake  bit  one  of  the  knights ;  he  raised  his  sword  to  slay  it, 
and  the  two  armies,  supposing  it  to  be  the  signal,  came  to 
battle.  His  son,  the  traitor  Sir  Mordred,  wounded  the  bright 
king,  because  the  scabbard  of  his  sword  had  been  stolen.  Yet 
Arthur  cannot  die  till  the  sword  has  been  thrown  into  the 
water,  for  the  sun  must  set  in  the  waters  (behind  the  canopy- 
bank).  But  Arthur  is  one  of  those  heroes  who  do  not  die. 
The  three  mystic  queens,  like  the  three  fates  or  three  furies, 
bear  him  away  in  the  ship  of  the  dead  (the  canopy  ship),  but 
he  will  return.  All  Wales  and  Brittany  look  for  his  coming. 
He  has  only  gone  to  the  land  of  Avalon  to  be  healed  of  his 
grievous  wound.  Now,  the  word  Avalon  means  the  island 
of  apple-trees.  The  paradise  of  the  Kelts  was  always  an 
island  far  over  the  blue  seas."  37  The  fact  will  be  recognized 
that  he  went  to  the  egg-hole  land,  and  that  the  apples  are  the 
stars  in  the  open  place  of  the  sky  where  he  was  to  be  healed. 

,  pp.  245-248. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION 

THE  Platonic  Drama  consists  mainly  of  argumentative 
conversation,  however  the  element  of  the  myth  is  frequently 
introduced,  and  in  some  of  the  Dialogues  it  becomes  so  strik- 
ing that  a  just  consideration  of  Plato's  philosophical  style 
is  impossible  without  taking  it  into  account.  To  understand 
this  philosophy  in  its  fullness,  then,  it  is  all-important  to 
catch  the  true  notes  of  the  echo  from  the  forgotten  past.  The 
Belted  Canopy  Hypothesis  does  this ;  it  brings  the  vibrations 
of  the  past  down  to  the  present.  Let  us  make  a  connection 
with  this  long-distance  telephone  and  place  our  ear  at  the 
receiver. 

Here  and  there  we  catch  a  sound  that  seems  to  have 
pierced  right  through  the  whole  gap  of  history.  The  Phsedo 
Myth  vibrates  with  the  rush  of  many  waters.  Channels  are 
bored  under  the  Earth,  forming  bowls,  and  measureless  floods 
of  perennial  rivers,  some  broad,  some  shallower,  also  much 
fire  floweth,  and  there  are  great  rivers  of  fire  (rivers  illu- 
minated by  sun-fire) ,  and  many  rivers  of  running  mud,  some 
clearer,  some  thicker.  Plato  naturally  compares  them  to  the 
rivers  of  Sicily.  Then  note  the  significant  language  that 
follows :  "  With  these  floods  therefore  each  place  is  filled 
according  as  at  each  time  the  stream  floweth  round  unto 
each."  The  ebb  and  the  flow  of  the  tides  resounds  through 
the  whole  passage,  but  the  beat  of  the  waves  still  has  the 
sound  of  the  storm  of  canopy  decline.  And  they  flow  <  afar 
off,  where  deepest  underground  the  Pit  is  digged'  (the 
Tartarus  of  the  poets).  Now,  from  this  cavern  the  rivers 

1  The  translation  quoted  in  the  text  is  from  J.  A.  Stewart's  "  The 
Myths  of  Plato." 

297 


298  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

flow  in,  and  from  it  they  flow  out.  "  The  cause  of  all  streams 
flowing  out  and  flowing  in  is  that  this  flood  hath  no  bottom 
or  foundation.  Wherefore  it  swingeth  and  surgeth  up  and 
down,  and  the  air  and  the  wind  surge  with  it."  "  Some 
waters  there  be  that,  coming  forth  out  of  the  Earth  at  one 
side  thereof,  flow  in  at  the  contrary  side;  and  some  that  go 
in  and  come  out  on  the  same  side ;  and  some  there  be  that  go 
round  the  whole  Earth  and  are  wound  about  it  once — yea, 
perchance,  many  times — like  serpents.  These  rivers  pour 
their  waters  back  into  Tartarus  as  low  down  as  water  can 
fall.  Now,  it  can  fall  as  far  as  the  centre  in  each  way, 
but  no  further:  each  half  of  the  Earth  is  a  hill  against  the 
stream  that  floweth  from  the  side  of  the  other  half."  The 
four  rivers  are  called  '  Ocean/  '  Acheron/  which  floweth  the 
contrary  way  (a  very  significant  statement,  as  the  canopy 
belts,  owing  to  their  different  positions  in  the  heavens,  ap- 
peared to  flow  or  move  at  different  rates  of  speed;  to  an 
observer  in  the  south  the  belts  in  the  north  must  have  even 
appeared  to  have  a  retrograde  movement),  Pyriphlegethon 
of  the  fiery  floods,  and  the  Styx,  whose  waters  hath  wholly 
the  color  of  blue  steel,  and  which  issues  forth  first  into  a 
fearful,  savage  place. 

Another  sound  comes  over  the  '  phone '  from  the  Myth 
of  Er.  Here  we  have  the  Spindle  of  Necessity,  a  pillar  of 
light  in  the  sky.  The  souls  after  sojourning  a  thousand  years 
in  Tartarus  and  Heaven  journey  aboveground  from  the 
Meadow  till  they  come  to  a  "  Rainbow-colored  light,  straight 
like  a  pillar,  extended  from  on  high  throughout  the  Heaven 
and  the  Earth."  There  seems  to  be  a  great  system  revolving 
above,  and  the  Earth  remains  fixed  in  the  centre.  The  des- 
tination of  the  Pilgrim  Souls  appears  to  be  that  part  of  the 
surface  of  the  globe  which  supports  the  hemisphere  of  fire, 
and  the  Spindle  of  Necessity.  "  Now,  when  both  companies 
had  been  seven  days  in  the  Meadow,  Er  said  that  they  were 
constrained  on  the  eighth  day  to  arise  and  journey  thence, 


PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION  299 

and  came  on  the  fourth  day  to  a  place  whence  they  could 
behold  a  Straight  Light  extended  from  above  through  the 
whole  Heaven  and  Earth,  as  it  were  a  pillar,  for  color  most 
like  unto  the  rainbow,  but  brighter  and  purer.  Unto  which 
they  came  when  they  had  gone  forward  a  day's  journey,  and 
there,  at  the  middle  part  of  the  Light,  beheld  extended  from 
the  Heaven  the  ends  of  the  bonds  thereof;  for  this  Light  is 
that  which  bindeth  the  Heavens  together ;  as  the  under-girths 
hold  together  ships,  so  doth  it  hold  together  the  whole  round 
of  Heaven ;  and  from  the  ends  extendeth  the  Spindle  of  Neces- 
sity, which  causeth  all  the  heavenly  revolutions,  whereof  the 
shaft  and  hook  are  of  adamant,  and  the  whorl  is  of  adamant 
and  of  other  substances  therewith." 

"  Now,  the  whorl  is  after  this  fashion.  In  shape  it  is  as 
one  of  our  whorls,  but  from  what  he  said  we  must  conceive 
of  it  as  a  great  whorl,  carved  hollow  through  and  through, 
wherein  is  set,  fitting  it,  a  smaller  whorl  of  like  kind,  as 
caskets  are  set  fitting  into  one  another;  and  then  in  this  a 
third  whorl  is  set,  and  then  a  fourth,  and  then  four  others; 
for  the  whorls  are  together  eight,  set  one  within  another, 
showing  their  lips  as  circles  above.  *  *  *  And  the 
whole  spindle  goeth  round  in  the  lap  of  Necessity."  The 
whole  matter  resolves  itself  into  a  natural  law. 

Still  another  vibration  comes  down  the  thread  of  time 
from  the  Politicus  Myth.  The  cosmic  periods,  come,  and  the 
cosmic  periods  go.  When  the  controlling  agency  of  some  all 
powerful  sky-god  lets  go  the  helm,  then  the  Cosmos  begins 
of  itself  to  revolve  backwards.  The  Golden  Age  of  Cronus 
was  brought  about  by  a  good  god,  an  all-protecting  canopy, 
under  which  the  children  of  men  basked  in  security  and 
plenty.  But  when  this  god  was  dethroned,  the  Cosmos 
changed  the  direction  of  its  revolution,  the-  change  being 
accompanied  by  great  earthquakes,  which  destroyed  all  but 
a  few  men  and  animals.  This  was  no  doubt  the  ending  of 
the  cataclysm  which  is  known  to  science  as  the  Ice  age.  Then 


300  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  Cosmos  calmed  down,  but  it  is  said  that  it  revolved  in 
its  own  direction,  which  evidently  means  that  it  did  not 
revolve  with  the  same  movement  that  it  did  under  the  good 
god  Cronus.  It  went  from  bad  to  worse,  till  the  god  of  the 
great  expanse  of  heaven,  in  his  goodness,  saved  struggling 
men  by  means  of  the  fire  of  Prometheus.  Zeus  triumphant 
let  the  light  of  the  new-born  sun  shine  in  on  the  darkened 
earth. 

The  doctrine  of  periodical  terrestrial  '  catastrophies/  as 
set  forth  in  this  myth,  was  a  part  of  the  '  science '  and 
'  philosophy'  of  Plato's  day.  The  reason  for  this  bent  of 
mind  is  accounted  for  by  the  closer  association  of  his  age 
with  that  which  went  before,  but  it  must  be  kept  constantly 
in  view  that  when  Plato  lived  he  only  caught,  as  we  do,  these 
echoes  from  a  distance;  the  distance  of  course  was  meas- 
urably shorter,  but  the  interpretation  of  the  vibrations  was 
in  some  ways  more  difficult  than  it  is  with  us,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  his  general  knowledge  was  much  more  limited  than 
ours  of  to-day.  Thus  in  the  Myth  of  the  Golden  Age  he 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  Athenian  Stranger  these  words: 
"It  is  told  that  there  was  a  Government  and  Settlement  when 
Cronus  was  King;  whereof  the  blessedness  was  great."  Plato 
goes  on  to  state  that  "  this,  then,  is  the  tale  which  we  have 
received  concerning  the  blessed  life  of  the  men  who  lived  in 
those  days :  It  telleth  that  they  had  all  things,  without  stint, 
spontaneously." 

Let  us  hear  more  of  what  this  Stranger  has  to  say ;  he  is 
speaking  in  the  Politicus  Myth.  "  Hearken !  This  Universe, 
for  a  certain  space  of  time,  God  himself  doth  help  to  guide 
and  propel  in  the  circular  motion  thereof;  and  then,  when 
the  cycles  of  the  time  appointed  unto  it  have  accomplished 
their  measure,  he  letteth  it  go.  Then  doth  it  begin  to  go 
round  in  the  contrary  direction,  of  itself,  being  a  living 
creature  which  hath  gotten  understanding  from  him  who 
fashioned  it  in  the  beginning.  This  circuit  in  the  contrary 


PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION  301 

direction  belongeth  of  necessity  to  the  nature  of  the  Universe. 
Now,  that  which  we  call  Heaven  and  Universe  hath  been 
made,  through  him  who  begat  it,  partaker  of  many  blessed 
possessions.  *  *  *  Whereof  it  is  not  possible  that  it  should 
be  wholly  set  free  from  change,  albeit,  as  far  as  possible,  it 
revolveth  in  the  same  place,  with  one  uniform  motion:  for 
this  reason,  when  it  changed,  it  took  unto  itself  circular 
motion  in  the  contrary  direction,  which  is  the  smallest  pos- 
sible alteration  of  the  motion  which  belongeth  unto  it."  Then 
follows  a  philosophical  deduction  that  shows  how  this  con- 
dition of  the  heavens  naturally  gave  rise  to  the  supposition 
that  there  was  more  than  one  god.  In  Plato's  time  the  true 
significance  was  already  lost,  so  the  Stranger  did  not  think 
the  argument  in  favor  of  there  being  two  gods  was  strong. 
The  philosophical  remarks  are  as  follows :  "  From  all  this 
it  followeth  that  we  must  not  say  that  the  Universe  either 
of  itself  moveth  itself  alway,  or  again  is  alway  wholly  moved 
by  God  to  revolve  now  in  one  direction  and  then  in  the  con- 
trary direction;  nor  must  we  say  that  there  be  two  Gods 
which,  being  contrariously  minded,  do  cause  it  so  to  revolve ; 
but  we  must  hold  by  that  which  was  just  now  said  and  alone 
remaineth,  to  wit,  that  at  one  time  it  is  holpen  and  guided 
by  the  power  of  God  supervening,  and  hath  more  life  added 
unto  it,  and  receiveth  immortality  from  the  Creator  afresh; 
and  then,  at  another  time,  when  it  is  let  go,  it  moveth  of 
itself,  having  been  so  opportunely  released  that  thereafter  it 
journey eth  in  the  contrary  direction  throughout  ages  innu- 
merable, being  so  great  of  bulk,  and  so  evenly  balanced,  and 
turned  on  so  fine  a  point."  "  Now  have  I  told  thee,  Socrates, 
of  the  life  which  was  when  Cronus  reigned;  as  for  the  life 
which  now  is,  which  they  say  is  under  the  rule  of  Zeus,  thou 
art  here  thyself  and  knowest  what  it  is." 

The  subject  of  the  Timseus  Myth  is  the  Creation  of  the 
Universe.  Over  the  *  phone  '  comes  the  question :  "  Have 
we  rightly  called  the  Heaven  One  ?  Or  were  it  more  right  to 


302  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

say  that  there  are  Heavens  many — nay,  infinite  in  number  ?  " 
The  discussion  goes  on  to  prove  that  there  is  only  one.  But 
why  was  the  question  asked  ?  In  Plato's  time,  just  as  in  our 
own  time,  sane  men  knew  there  was  only  one  Heaven.  Were 
there  ever  conditions  that  gave  rise  to  this  question,  or  were 
Plato's  ancestors  insane? 

The  Atlantis  Myth  is  perhaps  the  most  germane  to  the 
present  hypothesis  of  any  of  the  Platonic  Myths.  It  is 
recorded  in  the  Critias,  which,  though  it  is  only  a  fragment, 
is  a  very  bulky  fragment  of  the  Timseus  Myth.  It  is  so  long 
and  so  well  known  that  we  omit  it.  Another  version  of  the 
story  is  given  by  Theopompos,  who  wrote  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury before  Christ.  According  to  him,  the  information  con- 
cerning Atlantis  was  given  by  Silenus  to  the  ancient  king  of 
Midas.2 

Herodotus  mentions  the  matter  and  in  connection  with 
the  cloud-mountain  he  says: 

"  The  inhabitants  say  that  it  is  the  Pillar  of  Heaven. 
From  this  mountain  these  men  derive  their  appellation,  for 
they  are  called  Atlantes.  They  are  said  neither  to  eat  the 
flesh  of  any  animal  nor  to  see  visions.  As  far,  then,  as  these 
Atlantes,  I  am  able  to  mention  the  names  of  the  nations  that 
inhabit  this  ridge,  but  not  beyond  them.  This  ridge,  how- 
ever, extends  as  far  as  the  pillars  of  Hercules."  3 

But  to  return  to  the  Platonic  exposition.  The  shape  given 
to  the  Living  Creature,  our  Earth,  as  described  in  the 
Timaeus  Myth,  makes  it  appear  "  like  a  ball,  round  with 
boundary  at  every  point  equally  distant  from  the  centre." 
And  furthermore,  there  was  nothing  outside  this  boundary 
or  canopy,  because  man  in  the  early  ages  could  not  see  beyond 
it.  "  Wherefore  He  turned  it  round  and  round,  with  the 


8  See  Aristotle,  cited  by  Plutarch,  Consolatio  ad  Apollonium,  §  27, 
ed.  Didot-Diibner,  p.  137.  Compare  Preller,  Griechische  Mythologie, 
1st  ed.,  vol.  i,  p.  453. 

«B.  iv,  c.  184,  Gary's  tr. 


PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION  303 

same  quickness,  in  the  same  place,  about  itself."  At  this 
point  in  the  myth  the  idea  of  a  later  age  intrudes  itself  upon 
the  circular  motion.  When  the  canopies  fell  the  true  heaven 
was  revealed,  but  the  idea  of  circular  motion  was  retained; 
however,  to  fit  it  to  the  new  conditions,  it  was  subdivided 
into  the  seven  concentric  circles,  representing  the  seven 
planets,  the  fire-ring  and  the  primum  mobile. 

Of  Earth  and  Heaven,  the  myth  goes  on  to  say,  the 
various  gods  were  born — "  both  gods  visible  in  their  heavenly 
courses,  and  gods  which  make  themselves  visible  as  it  pleaseth 
them — then  spake  unto  them  the  Begetter  of  this  Universe, 
saying :  Gods  of  gods  whose  Maker  and  Father  I  am,  ye  are 
the  creatures  of  my  handiwork,  and  without  me  are  ye  not 
loosed  asunder,  for  verily  that  which  is  bound  together  can 
alway  be  loosed;  but  none  save  an  evil  one  would  desire  to 
loose  asunder  that  whereof  the  parts  are  well  joined  together 
and  the  whole  state  is  goodly.  Wherefore,  being  creatures, 
ye  are  not  altogether  set  apart  from  death  so  that  ye  cannot 
be  loosed  asunder."  Then  follows  a  description  of  the  crea- 
tion of  soul,  and  a  mixed  idea  that  the  Immortal  partakes  of 
the  nature  of  the  Universe. 

"  !N"ow,  the  circuits  of  the  Soul,  having  been  bound  within 
the  Eiver  of  the  Body  which  floweth  mightily,  neither  had 
the  mastery  over  it,  nor  were  they  mastered,  but  were  pushed 
about,  and  did  push  with  violence,  so  that  the  whole  creature 
was  moved,  and  went  hither  and  thither  disorderly,  by 
chance,  without  forethought,  having  all  the  six  motions;  for 
forward  and  backward,  and  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  and 
down  and  up,  did  the  creatures  go,  wandering  towards  all 
the  six  points;  because  that  the  flood  was  great  which  did 
swell  up  over  them,  supplying  their  nourishment,  and  then 
again  did  flow  away  from  them;  and  yet  greater  was  the 
commotion  that  was  made  in  them  by  the  blows  of  those 
things  which  did  strike  against  them." 

"The  Young  Gods,  taking  for  a  pattern  the  shape  of  the 


304  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Universe  which  is  a  globe,  bound  the  Divine  Circles,  which 
are  twain,  within  this  corporeal  ball  which  we  call  Head. 
*  *  *  For  they  perceived  that  unto  the  Head  belonged 
all  the  motions  which  should  be.  Wherefore,  that  it  might 
not  go  rolling  upon  the  earth,  which  hath  heights  and  depths 
of  every  sort,  finding  no  way  of  getting  over  those  or  out  of 
these,  to  this  end  gave  they  unto  it  the  Body  for  a  carriage, 
to  make  the  way  easy  for  it.  Wherefore  the  Body  got  length, 
and  put  forth  limbs  which  were  able  to  be  stretched  out  and 
to  be  bent,  four  in  number;  for  thus  the  Gods  devise  means 
of  going  about,  so  that  the  Body,  therewith  taking  hold  and 
pushing  off,  could  go  through  all  places,  bearing  aloft  the 
temple  of  that  which  in  use  is  the  most  divine  and  the  most 
holy." 

This  same  comparison  of  the  soul  to  the  old-time  canopy, 
the  universe,  which  was  known  of  yore,  occurs  in  the  Phsedrus 
Myth.4  "  Let  it  then  be  said  of  the  Soul,  that  she  is  like 
unto  a  Power  composite  of  two  Winged  Horses  harnessed, 
and  a  Charioteer.  All  the  Horses  and  Charioteers  of  the 
Gods  are  themselves  good,  and  of  good  stock."  The  chariots 
of  the  gods  were  the  vapor  shells  or  halos  (in  mythology 
these  are  often  called  boats)  which  accompanied  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  in  their  courses. 

The  myth  goes  on  to  state  that  "  the  nature  of  wings 
consisteth  in  the  power  of  lifting  that  which  is  heavy  up  into 
the  height  where  the  generation  of  the  Gods  dwelleth;  and 
unto  wings,  amongst  the  bodily  parts  belongeth  the  largest 
portion  of  that  which  is  of  God. 

"  Zeus,  the  great  Captain  of  the  Host  of  Heaven,  mounted 
upon  his  winged  chariot,  rideth  first  and  disposeth  and  over- 

* "  There  can  be  no  doubt,  I  think,"  says  J.  A.  Stewart  in  his 
observations  on  the  Phaedo  Myth  ("The  Myths  of  Plato,"  p.  107),  that 
the  lofty  terrestrial  Paradise  of  the  Phaedo  Myth  answers  to  the  '  Island 
of  the  Blessed '  in  the  Gorgian  Myth,  to  ( these )  heights  of  the 
Phsedrus  Myth,  and  to  the  'heaven*  of  the  Myth  of  Er."  Dante's 
Mount  of  Purgatory  is  founded  on  the  same  echo. 


PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION  305 

seeth  all  things.  Him  followeth  the  army  of  Gods  and 
Daemons  in  eleven  orders — for  Hestia  alone  abideth  in  the 
House  of  Gods;  but  all  the  other  Gods  which  are  of  the 
number  of  the  Twelve  go  forth  and  lead  each  one  the  order 
whereof  he  is  appointed  to  be  captain. 

"  Many  holy  sights  there  be  for  eye  to  behold  of  blessed 
Gods  in  their  courses  passing  to  and  fro  within  the  firmament 
of  Heaven,  each  one  doing  his  own  business :  and  whosoever 
willeth,  and  is  able,  followeth ;  for  Envy  standeth  afar  from 
the  Heavenly  Choir. 

"  Now,  as  often  as  they  go  to  eat  at  the  banquet,  their 
path  is  ever  up  by  the  steep  way  close  under  the  roof  of  the 
Heaven.  The  Chariots  of  the  Gods,  going  evenly  and  being 
alway  obedient  to  the  hand  of  the  Charioteer,  accomplish 
their  journey  easily;  but  the  other  Chariots  hardly,  with 
great  labor,  for  the  Horse,  which  is  by  nature  froward,  is  as 
a  weight,  and  ever  inclineth  towards  the  Earth,  and,  except 
the  Charioteer  hath  brought  him  into  subjection,  draweth 
the  Chariot  down.  *  *  *  The  Souls  which  are  called 
immortal,  when  they  are  come  to  the  top  of  the  Heaven, 
journey  out  therefrom  and  stand  upon  the  Roof  thereof 
without,  and,  standing,  are  carried  round  by  the  circuit,  and 
behold  those  things  which  are  without  the  Heaven." 

These  immortal  souls  reach  the  place  which  is  above  the 
Heaven,  that  is,  the  place  above  the  canopy.  Plato  states 
that  "no  poet  here  hath  ever  praised,  nor  shall  praise 
worthily,  this  locality.  *  *  *  The  Substance  which 
Verily  Is,  which  hath  no  color  and  no  shape,  and  hand  cannot 
touch.  *  *  *  Round  about  this  Substance,  in  this 
Place,  dwelleth  True  Knowledge."  This  fact  is  indeed  true, 
when  the  canopy  fell  the  true  nature  of  the  universe  was 
revealed  and  the  day  of  the  gods  passed  forever  away. 

The  Phsedrus  Myth  next  depicts  the  condition  of  the 
other  classes  of  souls ;  those  which  could  not  reach  this  region 
above  the  canopy  where  all  truth  was  revealed.  "  This  is  the 
20 


306  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

life  of  the  Gods.  Of  the  other  Souls,  whichsoever  followeth 
God  best,  and  is  made  most  like  unto  Him,  keepeth  the  head 
of  her  Charioteer  lifted  up  into  the  Place  without  the  firma- 
ment, and  is  carried  round  with  the  circuit  thereof,  heing 
troubled  by  the  Horses,  and  hardly  beholding  the  Things 
Which  Are;  after  her  cometh  the  Soul,  which  for  a  space 
keepeth  the  head  of  her  Charioteer  lifted  up,  and  then  again 
sinketh  down,  and  because  of  the  violence  of  the  Horses, 
seeth  some  of  the  Things  Which  Are,  but  some  she  seeth  not. 

"  Beside  these  follow  other  Souls,  which  all  do  strive 
after  that  which  is  above,  but  are  not  able  to  reach  unto  it, 
and  are  carried  round  sunken  beneath  the  face  of  the  Heaven, 
trampling  upon  one  another,  running  against  one  another, 
and  pressing  on  for  to  outstrip  one  another,  with  mighty  great 
sound  of  tumult  and  sweat  of  the  race ;  and  here,  by  reason 
of  the  unskilfulness  of  the  Charioteers,  many  Souls  are 
maimed,  and  many  have  their  wings  broken ;  and  all,  greatly 
travailling,  depart  uninitiated,  not  having  seen  That  Which 
Is,  and  turn  them  to  the  food  of  Opinion." 

The  two  Symposium  Myths  next  hold  our  attention,  and 
we  quote  the  following  from  the  one  told  by  Aristophanes. 
Describing  a  sky-born  phenomenon,  the  record  says :  "  !N"ow, 
the  genders  were  three,  and  of  this  sort,  because  the  male 
gender  was  in  the  beginning  sprung  from  the  Sun,  and  the 
female  gender  from  the  Earth,  and  that  which  partook  of 
both  from  the  Moon — for  the  Moon  partaketh  of  both  Sun 
and  Earth  (the  moon  of  mythology  is  the  crescent  canopy)  : 
so  it  came  to  pass  that  they  themselves  and  their  manner  of 
progression  were  circular  after  the  likeness  of  their  parents : 
and  they  were  terrible  by  reason  of  their  strength  and  valor ; 
and  their  hearts  were  proud,  and  they  made  assault  upon  the 
Gods,  for  that  which  Homer  telleth  concerning  Ephialtes  and 
Otus  is  told  concerning  them — that  they  essayed  to  go  up 
into  Heaven  for  to  lay  hands  on  the  Gods." 

Attention  is  directed  to  the  fact  that  Plato  in  the  above 


PLATO'S  CONTRIBUTION  307 

quotation  distinctly  compares  this  matter  to  a  Homeric  tale. 
In  other  words,  it  has  come  down  to  him  from  the  distant 
past,  and  he  only  catches  the  jangling  echo.  "  Wherefore 
Zeus  and  the  other  Gods  took  counsel  what  they  should  do 
(with  these  sky-forms),  and  were  in  doubt;  for  they  were 
not  minded  to  slay  them,  as  they  slew  the  giants,  with 
thunderbolts." 

Briefly,  this  myth  depicts  round  people,  children  of  round 
parents,  who  are  very  swift  and  strong,  attacking  Zeus  and 
the  other  gods  in  their  stronghold.  Instead  of  destroying 
them  as  they  did  the  giants,  Zeus  cuts  them  in  two.  Then 
follows  philosophical  deductions,  etc.  Plainly,  the  idea  pre- 
vailed of  old  that  the  vapor  heavens  and  the  earth  were  one 
body,  and  that  this  body  had  life  made  up  of  other  life. 
Human  life  was  compared  to  the  body-life  of  the  universe, 
hence  the  analogy  in  the  myth. 

The  other  Symposium  Myth,  or  the  Discourse  of  Diatima, 
asks :  "  What,  then,  is  Eros  ? — is  he  Mortal  ?  "  The  answer 
is  that  he  is  a  Daemon,  something  betwixt  God  and  Mortal. 
The  ephemeral  sky  scenes  were  likened  to  the  flitting  condi- 
tions which  surround  a  human  soul.  The  Daemons,  Hesiod 
said,  dwell  in  '  the  parts  about  the  Earth/  and  more  espe- 
cially '  in  the  Air.'  They  were  souls  of  disembodied  spirits 
inhabiting  the  celestial  vault.  Some  lived  on  earth  in  the 
Golden  Age.  Some  died  in  the  Silver  Age.  Others  were 
Copper  Men  of  the  third  age.  While  others,  again,  were  the 
Heroes  of  the  fourth  age — those  who  had  fought  at  Thebes 
and  Troy.  These  last  battles  were  primarily  encounters 
between  the  sky-forces;  afterwards  they  became  associated 
and  mixed  in  with  actual  history.  The  fifth  age,  or  that  of 
Iron,  is  the  present. 


CHAPTER  XX 

MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS 

THE  Indians  of  the  Americas,  like  the  peoples  of  the 
Old  World,  recognized  the  fact  that  in  times  long  past  some- 
thing divided  up  the  cycles  of  duration  and  separated  the 
one  from  the  other.1  "  Neither  Jews  nor  Aztecs,  nor  indeed 
any  American  nation,"  says  Britton,  "  appear  to  have  sup- 
posed, with  some  of  the  old  philosophers,  that  the  present  was 
an  exact  repetition  of  previous  cycles,  but  rather  that  each 
was  an  improvement  on  the  preceding,  a  step  in  endless 
progress.  JSTor  did  either  connect  these  beliefs  with  astro- 
nomical reveries  of  a  great  year,  defined  by  the  return  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  to  one  relative  position  in  the  heavens. 
The  latter  seems  characteristic  of  the  realism  of  Europe,  the 
former  of  the  idealism  of  the  Orient ;  both  inconsistent  with 
the  meagre  astronomy  and  more  scanty  metaphysics  of  the 
red  race. 

"  The  expectation  of  the  end  of  the  world  is  a  natural 
complement  to  the  belief  in  periodical  destructions  of  our 
globe.  As  at  certain  times  past  the  equipoise  of  nature  was 
lost,  and  the  elements  breaking  the  chain  of  laws  that  bound 
them  ran  riot  over  the  universe,  involving  all  life  in  one 


1  As  an  instance  of  Old  -World  thought  on  these  divisions,  we  would 
recall  the  fact  mentioned  in  chapter  xvi,  that  "  Epictetus  favors  the 
opinion  that  at  the  solstices  of  the  great  year  not  only  all  human  beings, 
but  even  the  gods,  are  annihilated;  and  speculates  whether  at  such 
times  Jove  feels  lonely  (Discourses,  b.  iii,  ch.  13).  Macrobius,  so  far 
from  coinciding  with  him,  explains  the  great  antiquity  of  Egyptian 
civilization  by  the  hypothesis  that  that  country  is  so  happily  situated 
between  the  pole  and  equator,  as  to  escape  both  the  deluge  and  con- 
flagration of  the  great  cycle  (Somnium  Seipionis,  lib.  ii,  cap.  10). 
"The  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  p.  234.  By  way  of  comment, 
we  might  add  that  Macrobius  has  hit  the  nail  on  the  head. 
308 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  309 

mad  havoc  and  desolation,  so  in  the  future  we  have  to  expect 
that  day  of  doom."  2 

The  Aztecs  believed  in  four  ages.  Brinton  thinks  that 
"  Doubtless  the  theory  of  the  Ages  of  the  world  was  long  in 
vogue  among  the  Aztecs  before  it  received  the  definite  form 
in  which  we  now  have  it ;  and  as  this  was  acquired  long  after 
the  calendar  was  fixed,  it  is  every  way  probable  that  the 
latter  was  used  as  a  guide  to  the  former.  Echevarria,  a  good 
authority  on  such  matters,  says  the  number  of  the  Suns  was 
agreed  upon  at  a  congress  of  astrologists,  within  the  memory 
of  tradition."  3 

The  Quiches  also  believed  in  four  ages.  The  legend  of 
these  aborigines  is  to  this  effect :  "  By  the  will  of  the  Heart 
of  Heaven  the  waters  were  swollen  and  a  great  flood  came 
upon  the  manikins  of  wood.  Tor  they  did  not  think  nor 
speak  of  the  Creator  who  had  created  them,  and  who  had 
caused  their  birth.  They  were  drowned,  and  a  thick  resin 
fell  from  heaven. 

"  The  bird  Xecoteovach  tore  out  their  eyes ;  the  bird 
Camulatz  cut  off  their  heads ;  the  bird  Cotzbalam  devoured 
their  flesh;  the  bird  Tecumbalam  broke  their  bones  and 
sinews  and  ground  them  into  powder."4 

These  four  birds,  whose  names  have  lost  their  signifi- 
cation, no  doubt  originally  represented  four  different  vapor- 
belts,  or,  as  Brinton  says,  "  the  four  rivers,  which,  as  in  so 
many  legends,  are  the  active  agents  in  overwhelming  the 
world  in  its  great  crises."  Probably  at  a  later  date,  when 
the  canopy-belts  were  forgotten,  these  birds  came  to  repre- 
sent the  four  winds. 

In  the  Iroquois  narrative,  their  ancestor  was  kicked  from 
the  sky  by  her  irate  spouse.  When  she  fell  there  was  as  yet 
no  land  to  receive  her,  but  suddenly  it  began  to  bubble  up 
under  her  feet  and  waxed  bigger  and  bigger.  The  Algonkin 

2 "  The  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  p.  253. 
•Ibid.,  p.  252.  *IUd.,  p.  242. 


310  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

tribes  had  similar  ideas,  but  their  cosmology  was  of  a  recon- 
structive rather  than  a  constructive  nature.  "  A  reconstruc- 
tion supposes  a  previous  existence.  This  they  felt,  and  had 
something  to  say  about  an  earth  anterior  to  this  of  ours,  but 
one  without  light  or  human  inhabitants.  A  lake  burst  its 
bounds  and  submerged  it  wholly."  5 

The  thought  of  a  dark  world  is  one  of  the  commonest  to 
mythology.  The  Egyptians  said :  "  The  heaven  rests  upon 
the  earth,  like  a  goose  brooding  over  her  egg."  6  Naturally, 
among  the  less  enlightened  peoples  the  blackness  under  the 
shroud-like  canopy  must  have  been  appalling.  There  was 
indeed  something  brooding  over  them.  "  Even  the  Bushmen 
of  South  Africa  have  the  strange  idea  that  the  sun  did  not 
shine  on  their  country  in  the  beginning.  Only  after  the 
children  of  the  first  Bushmen  had  been  sent  up  to  the  top  of 
the  world  and  had  launched  the  sun  was  light  procured  for 
this  South  African  region.  A  similar  myth  was  found  among 
the  Australian  aborigines."  7 

"  In  the  cosmogony  of  the  Hidery  Indians,  the  creator 
of  the  world,  !N~ekilstluss,  in  the  shape  of  a  raven,  existed 
from  all  eternity.  Before  the  world  came  into  being,  he 
brooded  over  the  intense  darkness  that  prevailed,  until,  after 
aeons  of  ages,  by  the  continual  napping  of  his  wings  he  beat 
the  darkness  down  to  solid  ground.  For  a  long  time  the  only 
light  in  the  world  was  a  dim,  hazy  one,  given  off  by  the  earth. 
When  the  earth  was  in  a  condition  to  receive  the  stronger 
light  from  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  he  set  out  to  get  hold 
of  them.  They  were  in  possession  of  a  great  chief,  who  had 
them  in  three  separate  boxes,  kept  them  only  for  his  own 
use,  and  refused  to  part  with  them.  !N"ekilstluss,  having 
obtained  one  of  the  boxes  by  a  ruse,  broke  it  open.  It  hap- 

°IUd.,  pp.  231,  232. 

6  Tiele,  "  History  of  the  Egyptian  Religion,"  p.  67. 

7  William  F.  Warren,  "  Paradise  Found,"  p.  200.     "  Bushman  Folk- 
lore,"  by   W.   H.   J.    Bleek.      "Parliament   Report,"    Cape   Town   and 
London,  1875:   p.  9. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  311 

pened  to  be  the  sun  that  he  had  got,  and  this  he  took  in  his 
beak,  and,  flying  up,  placed  it  in  the  heavens,  where  it  has 
been  ever  since.  After  this  he  obtained  the  two  other  boxes 
by  another  ruse,  and,  having  broken  them  open,  let  out  the 
moon  and  stars,  which  he  placed  in  the  heavens,  where  they 
have  ever  since  continued  to  shine."  8 

The  Thlinkeets,  an  Alaskan  tribe,  say  that  Yehl  is  the 
maker  of  wood  and  of  water;  undoubtedly  he  was  origi- 
nally the  canopy.  The  story  tells  us  that  "  at  that  time  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  were  kept  by  a  rich  chief  in  separate 
boxes,  which  he  allowed  no  one  to  touch.  Yehl,  by  strategy, 
secured  and  opened  these  boxes,  so  that  the  moon  and  stars 
shone  in  the  sky.  When  the  sun-box  was  opened,  the  people, 
astonished  at  such  an  unwonted  glare,  ran  off  into  the 
mountains."  9 

Ignatius  Donnelly  is  responsible  for  the  following  in- 
stances of  a  somewhat  opposite  nature,  where  the  sun  is 
caught  in  the  canopy-net  instead  of  being  liberated.  It  will 
be  seen  they  are  of  the  same  character  as  the  boxing  of  Osiris 
in  the  coffin,  and  of  Perseus  and  his  mother  in  the  chest. 
They  illustrate  the  yearly  phenomenon  of  the  disappearance 
of  the  sun  beneath  the  great  black  obscuring  thing.  The 
first  tale  says: 

"  There  was  once,  according  to  the  Ojibway  legends,  a 
boy;  the  sun  burned  and  spoiled  his  bird-skin  coat;  and  he 
swore  that  he  would  have  vengeance.  He  persuaded  his  sister 
to  make  him  a  noose  of  her  own  hair.  He  fixed  it  just  where 
the  sun  would  strike  the  land  as  it  rose  above  the  earth's 
disk ;  and,  sure  enough,  he  caught  the  sun,  and  held  it  fast, 
so  that  it  did  not  rise. 

"  The  animals  who  ruled  the  earth  were  immediately  put 
into  great  commotion.  They  had  no  light.  They  called  a 
council  to  debate  upon  the  matter,  and  to  appoint  some  one 

8  Scientific  American  Supplement,  No.  1032. 

»F.  S.  Dobbins,  "Gods  and  Devils  of  Mankind,"  p.  371. 


312  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

to  go  up  and  cut  the  cord,  for  this  was  a  very  hazardous 
enterprise,  as  the  rays  of  the  sun  would  burn  up  whoever 
came  so  near.  At  last  the  dormouse  undertook  it,  for  at  this 
time  the  dormouse  was  the  largest  animal  in  the  world ;  when 
it  stood  up  it  looked  like  a  mountain.  (The  dormouse 
undoubtedly  was  a  vapor-form.)  When  it  got  to  the  place 
where  the  sun  was  snared,  its  back  began  to  smoke  and  burn 
with  the  intensity  of  the  heat,  and  the  top  of  its  carcass  was 
reduced  to  enormous  heaps  of  ashes.  It  succeeded,  however, 
in  cutting  the  cord  with  its  teeth  and  freeing  the  sun,  but  it 
was  reduced  to  a  very  small  size,  and  has  remained  so  ever 
since.  *  *  * 

"  Among  the  Wyandots  a  story  was  told,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  of  a  boy  whose  father  was  killed  and  eaten  by 
a  bear,  and  his  mother  by  the  Great  Hare.  He  was  small, 
but  of  prodigious  strength.  He  climbed  a  tree,  like  Jack 
of  the  Bean-Stalk,  until  he  reached  heaven. 

"  He  set  his  snares  for  game,  but  when  he  got  up  at  night 
to  look  at  them  he  found  everything  on  fire.  His  sister  told 
him  he  had  caught  the  sun  unawares,  and  when  the  boy, 
Chakabech,  went  to  see,  so  it  was.  But  he  dared  not  go  near 
enough  to  let  him  out.  But  by  chance  he  found  a  little 
mouse,  and  blew  upon  her  until  she  grew  so  big  she  could  set 
the  sun  free,  and  he  went  on  his  way.  But  while  he  was 
held  in  the  snare,  day  failed  down  here  on  earth.  (It  was 
the  age  of  darkness,  under  the  canopy.)  *  *  * 

"  The  Dog-Rib  Indians,  far  in  the  northwest  of  America, 
near  the  Esquimaux,  have  a  similar  story.  Chakabech  be- 
comes Chapewee.  He  too  climbs  a  tree,  but  it  is  in  pursuit 
of  a  squirrel,  until  he  reaches  heaven.  He  set  a  snare  made 
of  his  sister's  hair  and  caught  the  sun.  f  The  sky  was  in- 
stantly darkened.'  Chapewee's  family  said  to  him,  'You 
must  have  done  something  wrong  when  you  were  aloft,  for 
we  no  longer  enjoy  the  light  of  day.'  'I  have,'  replied  he, 
'but  it  was  unintentionally.'  Chapewee  sent  a  number  of 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  313 

animals  to  cut  the  snare,  but  the  intense  heat  reduced  them 
all  to  ashes.  At  last  the  ground-mole,  working  in  the  earth, 
cut  the  snare,  but  lost  its  sight,  and  its  nose  and  teeth  have 
ever  since  been  brown  as  if  burnt."  The  same  myth  is 
current  in  other  lands.  Thus : 

"  Maui  is  the  Polynesian  god  of  the  ancient  days.  He 
concluded,  as  did  Ta-wats,10  that  the  days  were  too  short. 
He  wanted  the  sun  to  slow  up,  but  it  would  not.  So  he  pro- 
ceeded to  catch  it  in  a  noose,  like  the  O  jib  way  boy  and  the 
Wyandot  youth.  The  manufacture  of  the  noose,  we  are  told, 
led  to  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  rope-making.  He  took  his 
brothers  with  him;  he  armed  himself,  like  Samson,  with  a 
jaw-bone,  but  instead  of  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  he,  with 
much  better  taste,  selected  the  jaw-bone  of  his  mistress.  She 
may  have  been  a  lady  of  fine  conversational  powers  (the 
canopy  it  will  be  remembered  was  the  source  of  many  terms 
and  root  words  •  and  also  the  cause  of  the  confusion  of 
tongues).  They  traveled  far,  like  Ta-wats,  even  to  the  very 
edge  of  the  place  where  the  sun  rises.  There  he  set  his  noose. 
The  sun  came  and  put  his  head  and  fore-paws  into  it;  then 
the  brothers  pulled  the  ropes  tight,  and  Maui  gave  him  a 
great  whipping  with  the  jaw-bone ;  he  screamed  and  roared ; 
they  held  him  there  for  a  long  time  (the  Age  of  Darkness), 
and  at  last  they  let  him  go;  and,  weak  from  his  wounds 
(obscured  by  the  canopy),  he  crawls  slowly  along  his  path. 
Here  the  jaw  of  the  wolf  Fern-is,  which  reached  from  earth 
to  heaven,  in  the  Scandinavian  legends,  becomes  a  veritable 
jaw-bone  which  beats  and  ruins  the  sun."11  *  *  * 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  sun  in  this  Polynesian 
legend  is  Ea,  precisely  the  same  as  the  name  of  the  god  of 
the  sun  in  Egypt,  while  in  Hindustan  the  sun-god  is  Ea-ma. 


10  See  chapter  xvi. 

"This  pendent  jaw-sky-bone  is  similar  to  the  gigantic  clam-shell 
which  Pythias  declared  could  have  swallowed  up  his  ship.  See  chapter 
xvii. 


314  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  In  another  Polynesian  legend  we  read  of  a  character 
who  was  satisfied  with  nothing — '  even  pudding  would  not 
content  him ' — and  this  unconscionable  fellow  worried  his 
family  out  of  all  heart  with  his  new  ways  and  ideas.  He 
represents  a  progressive,  inventive  race.  He  was  building  a 
great  house,  but  the  days  were  too  short;  so,  like  Maui,  he 
determined  to  catch  the  sun  in  nets  and  ropes ;  but  the  sun 
went  on.  At  last  he  succeeded ;  he  caught  him.  The-  good 
man  then  had  time  to  finish  his  house,  but  the  sun  cried  and 
cried  '  until  the  island  of  Savai  was  nearly  drowned.'  *  *  * 

"  And  these  myths  of  the  sun  being  tied  by  a  cord  are, 
strange  to  say,  found  even  in  Europe.  The  legends  tell  us : 

"  In  North  Germany  the  townsmen  of  Bosum  sit  up  in 
their*  church-tower  and  hold  the  sun  by  a  cable  all  day  long ; 
taking  care  of  it  at  night,  and  letting  it  up  again  in  the 
morning.  In  e  Reynard  the  Fox/  the  day  is  bound  with  a 
rope,  and  its  bonds  only  allow  it  to  come  slowly  on.  The 
Peruvian  Inca  said  the  sun  is  like  a  tied  beast,  who  goee 
ever  round,  in  the  same  track."  In  the  days  when  the 
ephemeral  vapor-forms  were  ever  changing  their  courses  the 
fact  that  the  sun,  seen  in  his  halo-boat,  seemed  to  journey 
in  a  fixed  or  tied-up  path  must  have  been  especially  noticeable. 

"  Let  us  change  the  scene  again  to  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Aztecs.  We  are  told  of  two  youths,  the  ancestors  of  the 
Miztec  chiefs,  who  separated,  each  going  his  own  way  to 
conquer  lands  for  himself. 

"  The-  braver  of  the  two,  coming  to  the  vicinity  of  Tilan- 
tongo,  armed  with-  buckler  and  bow,  was  much  vexed  and 
oppressed  by  the  ardent  rays  of  the  sun,  which  he  took  to  be 
the  lord  of  that  district,  striving  to  prevent  his  entrance 
therein.  Then  the  young  man  strung  his  bow,  and  advanced 
his  buckler  before  him,  and  drew  shafts  from  his  quiver.  He 
shot  these  against  the  great  light  even  till  the  going  down  of 
the  same;  then  he  took  possession  of  all  that  land,  seeing  that 
he  had  grievously  wounded  the  sun  and  forced  him  to  hide 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  315 

behind  the  mountains  (canopy  and  vapor-belts).  Upon  this 
story  is  founded  the  lordship  of  all  the  caciques  of  Mizteca, 
and  upon  their  descent  from  this  mighty  archer,  their  ances- 
tor. Even  to  this  day,  the  chiefs  of  the  Miztecs  blazon  as 
their  arms  a  plumed  chief  with  bow  and  arrows  and  shield, 
and  the  sun  in  front  of  him  setting  behind  gray  clouds."  12 

Another  class  of  these  uncanny,  cold-blooded  reminis- 
cences actually  portrays  primeval  man  living  in  a  cave  under 
a  world-roof;  the  darkness  of  the  cave  is  depicted,  and  the 
cave  is  said  to  be  so  big  that  all  the  animals  of  the  world 
live  in  it  with  man.  Bancroft  says: 

"  The  Navajos,  living  north  of  the  Pueblos,  say  that  at 
one  time  all  the  nations,  Navajos,  Pueblos,  Coyoteros,  and 
white  people,  lived  together  underground,  in  the  heart  of  a 
mountain,  near  the  river  San  Juan.  Their  food  was  meat, 
which  they  had  in  abundance,  for  all  kinds  of  game  were 
closed  up  with  them  in  their  cave;  but  their  light  was  dim, 
and  only  endured  for  a  few  hours  each  day."  The  Indians 
were  aware  that  this  grotto  covering  was  water  (vapor). 
Bancroft  goes  on  to  tell  how  the  Moth-worm  (the  totemic 
emblem  of  a  family)  "  mounted  into  the  breach,  and  bored 
and  bored  till  he  found  himself  suddenly  on  the  outside  of 
the  mountain,  and  surrounded  by  water."  The  story  goes  on 
to  relate  that  "  when  these  nations  lived  underground  they 
all  spake  one  tongue ;  but,  with  the  light  of  day  and  the  level 
of  earth,  came  many  languages.  The  earth  was  at  this  time 
very  small,  and  the  light  was  quite  as  scanty  as  it  had  been 
down  below,  for  there  was  as  yet  no  heaven,  no  sun,  nor 
moon,  nor  stars.  So  another  council  of  the  ancients  was 
held,  and  a  committee  of  their  number  appointed  to  manu- 
facture these-  luminaries."  The  "  dum  fluter  "  is  said  to 


18 "  Ragnarok,"  pp.  181-185.  Brinton,  "Myths  of  the  New  World," 
pp.  165,  217.  Tylor's  "  Early  History  of  Mankind,"  pp.  348,  347,  352. 
Richardson's  "Narrative  of  Franklin's  Second  Expedition,"  p.  291. 
Bancroft,  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  73. 


316  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

have  been  given  the  final  charge  of  making  these  orbs.  Then 
we  are  told  that  the  increasing  size  of  the  earth  necessitated 
the  putting  back  of  the  sun  from  the  earth,  by  which  we 
understand  that  the  old  shiner  gave  place  to  the  true  sun  as 
the  atmosphere  cleared,  thus  the  source  of  light  appeared  to 
be  moved  farther  away.'7  13 

As  the  canopy  approached  its  last  stage  its  increased  size 
was  apparent  to  all,  the  world-mountain  seemed  to  be  about 
to  swallow  everything  in  its  fearful  maw.  "  The  Karens 
say  that  Twa  Wya,  going  to  the  Sun  (shiner)  that  he  might 
make  him  grow,  was  so  increased  by  the  Sun  (shiner)  that 
his  head  touched  the  sky  (he  was  the  true  sun).  He  went 
forth  on  various  adventures  over  the  earth,  and  was  after  a 
time  swallowed  by  a  snake.  The  reptile  being  cut  open, 
Twa  Wya  came  back  to  life  (like  e  Osiris  Found7).  The 
Basutos  tell  that  Litaolane,  their  hero,  was  swallowed  by  a 
monster,  but  that  he  cut  his  way  out,  and  set  free  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  world.  The  Zulus  say  the  maw  of  the 
monster  that  devoured  the  Princess,  and  men,  dogs,  etc.,  has 
forests,  rivers,  hills,  cattle,  and  people  living  there,  and  when 
at  length  he  is  cut  open,  out  come  they  all ;  the  cock  appears 
first,  and  he  cries  out  in  his  rapture  of  joy,  (  Kukuluku, — 
I  see  the  world.7  In  the  Algonquin,  Manabozho,  angling  for 
the  King  of  Fishes,  was  swallowed  up,  canoe  and  all;  he 
belabored  the  monster  with  his  war-club  until  he  would  fain 
have  cast  him  out  again,  but  Manabozho  set  his  canoe  across 
the  fish's  throat  inside  and  despatched  him;  the  fish  drifted 
ashore  and  the  gulls  pecked  a  place  by  which  the  hero  could 
come  out.77 14 

It  should  be  remembered  that  there  were  at  least  two 
caves  in  the  heavens  (cavemous-like  places) :  Calypso7s 
cavern  and  the  equatorial  slit.  The  Peruvians  have  a  legend 


""Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  81. 

11  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  96-97. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  317 

of  their  god  Ataguja  sending  to  the  earth  the  first  of  mortals, 
who  there  seduced  the  sister  of  a  certain  Guachemines,  or 
rayless  one,  a  darkling.  The  sister  proved  pregnant,  and  died 
in  her  labor,  giving  birth  to  two  eggs,  the  sun  and  moon. 
From  these  emerged  the  two  brothers,  Apocatequil  and 
Piguerao.15  It  is  significant  that  this  Ataguja  came  from 
the  east  and  disappeared  in  the  Western  Ocean,  four  civ- 
ilizers  following  him,  who  emerged  from  the  cave  of  the 
House  of  Birth. 

"  All  the  tribes  on  the  Northwest  Coast,"  says  Brinton, 
"  attribute  the  creative  act  to  the  original  Raven  (canopy), 
who  lived  before  the  sun  was  formed.  He  found  it  by  one  or 
another  accident,  and,  picking  it  up, '  placed  it  in  the  heavens, 
where  it  has  been  ever  since.'  With  the  Kootenays  it  is 
either  the  coyote  or  the  chicken  hawk  who  manufactures  the 
sun  out  of  a  ball  of  grease  and  sets  it  in  the  sky  to  pursue 
its  course — rude  fancies,  but  serving  as  well  as  any  to  show 
that  these  tribes  did  not  regard  the  sun  as  the  visible  creator 
or  the  highest  divinty."  1G 

Donnelly  very  truly  remarks :  "  A  great  solar-myth 
underlies  all  the  ancient  mythologies.  It  commemorates  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  the  sun.  It  signifies  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  light  by  the  clouds,  the  darkness,  and  the  eventual 
return  of  the  great  luminary  of  the  world. 

"  The  Syrian  Adonis,  the  sun-god,  the  Hebrew  Tamheur, 
and  the  Assyrian  Du-Zu,  all  suffered  a  sudden  and  violent 
death,  disappeared  for  a  time  from  the  sight  of  men,  and 
were  at  last  raised  from  the  dead."17  But  we  would  add  that 
these  disappearances  were  due  to  the  zonal  vapor-belts  in  the 
higher  atmosphere  and  to  the  canopy  that  soared  above  all. 

Among  the  Mexicans  is  the  following  legend  of  the  return- 
ing of  the  sun :  "  Now,  there  had  been  no  sun  in  existence 
for  many  years ;  so  the  gods,  being  assembled  in  a  place  called 

"Brinton,  "Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  p.  184. 
18  IUd.,  p.  166.  "  "  Kagnarok,"  p.  233. 


318  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Teotihuacan,  six  leagues  from  Mexico,  and  gathered  at  the 
same  time  around  a  great  fire,  told  their  devotees  that  he  of 
them  who  should  first  cast  himself  into  that  fire  should  have 
the  honor  of  being  transformed  into  a  sun.  So  one  of  them, 
called  Nanahuatzin,  *  *  *  flung  himself  into  the  fire. 
Then  the  gods  began  to  peer  through  the  gloom  in  all  direc- 
tions for  the  expected  light,  and  to  make  bets  as  to  what  part 
of  heaven  he  should  first  appear  in.  Some  said  e  Here/  and 
some  said  '  There  ' ;  but  when  the  sun  rose  they  were  all 
proved  wrong,  for  not  one  of  them  had  fixed  upon  the 
east."  18 

Donnelly,  commenting  on  the  myth,  says :  "  In  the  long- 
continued  darkness  they  had  lost  all  knowledge  of  the  car- 
dinal points."  19 

The  arrival  of  the  bright  one,  like  the  advent  of  Osiris, 
was  no  doubt  heralded  with  great  joy.  Mills  says : 

"  Among  the  American  Indians  the  term  Michabo,  lit- 
erally '  the  Great  White  One,'  means  also  in  some  connec- 
tions the  Great  Hare,  and  so  manifold  tales  have  sprung  up 
in  the  attempt  to  explain  why  this  appellation  should  have 
been  used  for  the  supreme.  So  a  like  illusion  in  Greece  was 
due  to  the  impression  that  Zeus  Lykaios,  literally  the  '  Light 
One/  was  Zeus  Lupine,  from  the  resemblance  of  LuJcaios  to 
Lukos;  as  Phoibos  Lykegenes,  literally  '  offspring  of  light/ 
was  supposed  wolf -born."  20 

"  Now,  it  appears/'  remarks  Brinton,  "  on  attentively 
examining  the  Algonkin  root  wab,  that  it  gives  rise  to  words 
of  very  diverse  meaning,  that  like  many  others  in  all  lan- 
guages, while  presenting  but  one  form,  it  represents  ideas 
of  wholly  unlike  origin  and  application;  that  in  fact  there 
are  two  distinct  roots  having  this  sound.  One  is  the  initial 
syllable  of  the  word  translated  hare  or  rabbit,  but  the  other 


"Bancroft,  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii,  p.  46. 

19  "  Ragnarok,"  p.  216. 

20 "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  38-39. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  319 

means  white."  21  From  the  light  shed  by  the  present  hypothe- 
sis it  is  clear  that  these  two  roots  are  from  one  common 
source.  '  The  White  One/  or  the  sun,  was  also  '  The  Swift 
One/  the  hare.  The  dialect  forms,  according  to  Brinton  in 
Algonkin,  for  white  are :  wabi,  wape,  wompi,  waubish,  oppai ; 
for  light:  oppung;  for  hare:  wab,  etc.,  etc. 

When  the  old  sky  passed  away,  words  lost  their  meaning, 
and  the  echo  that  has  come  down  to  us  is  robbed  of  much  of 
its  poetry.  "  The  California  tribes  spoke  of  their  chief  deity 
as  e  the  Old  Man  above.'  *  *  *  In  the  legends  of  the 
Aztecs  and  Quiches  such  phrases  as  '  Heart  of  the  Sky/ 
'  Lord  of  the  Sky/  '  Prince  of  the  Azure  Planisphere.'  c  He 
above  all/  are  of  frequent  occurrence;  and  by  a  still  bolder 
metaphor,  the  Araucanians,  according  to  Molina,  entitled 
their  greatest  god  '  the  Soul  of  the  Sky.'  "  22 

Let  us  endeavor  to  catch  the  fleeting  breath  of  at  least 
one  of  these  myths  before  the  (  Soul  of  the  Sky '  perishes 
forever.  The  one  selected  is  that  of  the  legend  of  Olelbis. 

'T  was  a  light  that  gleamed  on  the  hilltops, 

'T  was  a  light  that  gleamed  afar, 
Away  in  the  distant  purple  west 

Where  the  Wintu  people  are. 

Such  light  belongs  to  the  cloud-lands, 

To   the   regions    high   above 
Where  heaven's  ocean  reels  around 

And  floats  forth  as  a  dove. 

Like  a  beacon  it  seemed  to  flutter, 

Like  a  beacon  it  seemed  to  wave, 
And  ever  anon  it  caught  new  life 

And  flickered  forth  from  the  grave, 

Calling  me,  in  the  spirit,  with  the 

Hurried  sigh  of  death, — 
"The  Wintu  people  perish,  come 
Catch  their  parting  breath." 


21 "  The  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  p.  198. 
p.  65. 


THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

And  I  found  upon  the  hilltops 

In  the  spirit  that  breathes  the  air 

A  freedom  from  the  earth-chains, 
A  freedom  everywhere. 

And  the  winds  sighed  back  in  sorrow, 
And  the  winds  sighed  back  again, 

Telling  in  accents  softly  of 
The  truths  that  still  remain. 

These  whispered  of  the  wondrous  past 

Before  the  Wintus  were — 
When  the  first  people  walked  the  earth; 

Heaven's  amphitheatre. 

Then  like  on  Mount  Olympus, 

I  saw  a  palace  fair 
O'erhanging  and  o'ershadowing 

The  world  beneath,  four-square.21 

To  this  my  soul  by  Siriwit  was 

Lifted  up  on  high. 
And  the  beauty  of  that  marvelous  hut 

Entranced  my  eager  eye. 

Siriwit  the  whirlwind  whistled 

And  whisked  away  in  a  race 
While  I  in  leisure  viewed  the  scene 

And  entered  the  holy  place. 

Perfumed  were  all  the  breezes 

Which  came  from  the  "  Central  Blue," 
From  the  mansion  of  Olelbis, 

Laden  with  the  flower-dew. 

Olelpanti  Hlut  was  covered  all 

Over  within  and  without 
With  flowers  whose  roots  immortal 

Bloomed  from  every  sprout; 


98  "In  the  Olelbis  song,"  says  Jeremiah  Curtin,  "the  great  one 
above  is  the  cloud-compeller,  as  in  classic  mythology."  The  song  of  this 
spirit  is,  "  I  am  great  above.  I  tan  the  black  cloud  ( there ) ."  In  those 
days  there  were  Kahsuku,  cloud  dogs,  cloud  people.  "  Creation  Myths 
of  Primitive  America,"  pp.  36,  516. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  321 

Bloomed,  and  blazed  in  glory  on 

The  living  oak-tree  frame, 
As  the  world-ash  of  Scandinavia 

Whose  flowers  existed  in  flame, 

And  above  and  all  around  it 

The  acorns  ripened  and  fell. 
Panti  Hult  with  these  was  covered 

As  all  the  heroes  tell.24 

Breathing  this  air  ethereal 

I  looked  from  the  "Central  Blue" 
From  the  mansion  of  Olelbis 

And  from  there  I  saw  anew: 

Down  on  the  earth  the  battle  with 

The  water  element, 
And  the  first  people  looking  up 

At  the  troubled  firmament. 

Peace  had  reigned  for  ages,  but 

Behold  now  the  end  had  come, 
And  with  terror  they  beheld  the  "Swift" 

The  sky  become  quarrelsome. 

Katkatchila,  the  racing  hunter, 

Who  upheld  the  ring-world  cloud, 
Who  ran  in  his  broidered  garment, 

Who  always  beat  the  crowd. 

Katkatchila  now  was  angry  for 

Red-fox  had  taken  his  flint,25 
He  had  shot  at  a  deer  with  Dokos 

And  Hau  beat  him  out  in  the  sprint. 

Hau  stuck  the  stone  in  his  left  ear 

To  hide  it  away  from  "  Swift's  "  sight, 
But  the  latter  rose  in  his  anger 

And  travelled  away  in  the  night. 


24 "That  house  stood  in  the  morning  dawn,"  says  Curtin,  "a 
mountain  of  beautiful  flowers  and  oak  tree  branches;  all  the  colors  of 
the  world  were  on  it  outside  and  inside.  The  tree  in  the  middle  was 
far  above  the  top  of  the  house,  and  filled  with  acorns;  a  few  of  them 
had  fallen  on  every  side."  Ibid.,  p.  19. 

K  Flint  in  Indian  Mythology  represents  fire.    In  this  action  we  have 
sun-fire  breaking  through  the  sky-roof,  which  ends  the  Golden  Age. 
21 


THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Hau  took  the  stolen  flint-stone 

To  the  sweat-house  and  showed  it  there, 

But  all  of  the  first  people 
Began  to  see  the  snare. 

Titchelis,  the  little  ground  squirrel, 

Attempted  to  take  it  home, 
But   meanwhile  Katkatchila  had 

Eaised  the  sea  in  a  foam. 

It  tossed  around  in  anger. 

Poharamas,  shooting  star, 
And  Yonot,  his  Buckeye  sister, 

Unloosed  a  sky-prop  spar. 

Then  he  took  Pohila    (fire-child) 

And  with  pine  that  was  full  of  pitch 

He  started  a  flame  in  the  clean  swept  place ; 
Which  leapt  o'er  the  hill  and  ditch. 

Southeast  Poharamas  went 

And  Tilikus  to  the  southwest  rushed 
Each  with  a  brand  of  the  burning  pine, 

Each   by   the   crimson   flushed. 

And  these  set  fire  to  the  firmament  as 

Phaeton  did  in  Greece — 
The  Golden  Age  was  ended 

And  war  had  succeeded  peace.27 

As  I  watched  from  Olelphanti 
I  saw  all  these  things  below — 

Olelbis  looked  down  on  the  burning  world, 
On  the  scene  of  fire  and  woe: 


26  The  "  egg-hole  "  of  classic  mythology,  "  the  empty  place,"  "  Tarn- 
muz  bleeding,"  etc.  The  ruddy  glow  diffused  over  this  place  gave 
rise  to  the  belief  that  the  canopy  was  burning.  The  Scandinavians  saw 
it  and  knew  that  Ragnarok,  "  the  twilight  of  the  gods,"  was  at  hand. 

27 "  Soon  all  saw  that  the  fire  was  coming  toward  them  from  the 
east  and  the  west,  like  waves  of  high  water,  and  the  line  of  it  was 
going  northward  quickly.  The  fire  made  a  terrible  roar  as  it  burned; 
soon  everything  was  seething."  "  Creation  Myths  of  Primitive 
America,"  p.  13. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  323 

Nothing  but  waves  of  flame  we  saw, 

And  the  sparks  mounting  up  to  the  skies, 
Which  there  became  kolchituh, 

The  shining  stars     (sky-eyes).28 

We  watched  this  fire  together  with 

The  old  women  who  made  his  bread: 
Pakchuso  and  Pokaila, 

As  one,  advised  and  said: 

"  Grandson,"   said   the   old   women, 
"  If  you  want  this  wakpohas  put  out, 
There's  a  very  old  man,  Kahit  Kiemila, 
Who  lives  in  the  north,  thereabout. 

"He  lives  outside  of  the  first  sky. 

He  stays  there  in  one  little  place. 
Ask  him  to  send  us  Mem  Loimis, 
For  water  must  red-fire  chase." 

Olelbis  called  Lutchi  and  Sutunut. 
"  Go,  Lutchi,  pry  up  the  sky. 
"  Go,  Sutunut,  carry  these  feathers 
To  Kahit  to  signify 

"  That  I  wish  him  to  send  Mem  Loimis  through 

The  hole  which  Lutchi  pries  up. 
I  have  given  a  sky  prop  to  help  him. 
Now,  hurry,  the  world  dries  up!  " 

Lutchi  took  the  sky-pole 

And  placed  the  prop  underneath, 
Mem  Loimis  rushed  through  the  open  place" 

And  quenched  the  fire  beneath. 


28 "  Great  rolls,  and  piles  of  smoke  were  rising ;  fire  flew  up  toward 
the  sky  in  flames,  in  great  sparks  and  brands.  Those  sparks  became 
kolchituh  (sky-eyes),  and  all  the  stars  that  we  see  now  in  the  sky 
came  from  that  time  when  the  first  world  was  burned.  The  sparks 
stuck  fast  in  the  sky,  and  have  remained  there  ever  since  the  time 
of  the  wakpohas  (world  fire)."  Ibid.,  p.  15. 

29  Of  this  open  place  Curtin  says :  "  There  was  so  much  water 
outside  that  could  not  come  through  that  it  rose  to  the  top  of  the  sky 
and  rushed  on  toward  Olelpanti."  Ibid.,  p.  22. 


324  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

She  rushed  like  a  crowd  of  rivers,  and 

Covered  all  the  earth, 
And  naught  was  left  but  a  wilderness — 

There  was  nothing  left  of  worth. 

Then  Kahit,  the  force  centrifugal, 
Quickened  the  speed  of  the  ring, 

And  she  fell  backward  coming, 

Which  stopped  the  great  sky-spring. 

So  Kahit  drove  her  backward  to 

The   cloud-bag  from   whence   she   came. 

(A  bag  that  could  carry  everything — 
The  earth  itself,  some  claim).30 

Thus  she  retreated  backward 

Into  the  very  north, 
Where  she  sought  again  the  region 

From  which  she  had  sallied  forth; 

But  when   she  reached   the  sun-fish, 
She  divided,  east  and  west, 

And  came  to  the  hut  of  Olelbis 

And  became  his  wife  which  was  best.81 

There  from  their  home  of  flowers,  they 
Looked  down  on  the  fleshless  earth — 

Down,  down  on  the  dreadful  barren  dust 
On  the  scene  of  fire  and  dearth. 


30  The  cloud-bag  is  borrowed  from  the  myth  of  Nbrwanchakus  and 
Keriha.    In  this  myth  the  existence  of  Puriwa,  darkness,  and  Sanihas, 
daylight,  before  the  sun  was  in  the  world,  is  very  instructive,  and  the 
fact  that  the  Polar-star,  Waida  Werris,  was   seen  in  the  sky-hole  in 
the  north  is  remarkable.     Light  and  darkness  existed  outside  of  the 
sky,  and  were  stolen  from  that  place.     Under  the  cloud-bag  it  was 
very  dark.     Keriha  went  beyond  the  sky  on  the  southeast. 

31  In  the  myth  of  Olelbis  and  Mem  Loimis,  the  sons  of  these  mighty 
parents  pass    beyond    the    third    horizon    in    search    of    their    mother 
(water),  who  had  been  stolen  away.     Wokwuk,  their  companion,  had 
tied  the  hair  on  the  top  of  his  head  with  a  young  grapevine;  he  had  a 
bone  stuck  through  it,  and  with  this  bone  he  raised  the  sky.     "  When 
they  had  passed  the  third  sky,  they  could  see  far  east.     Everything 
was  nice  there  and  looked  clear,  just  as  it  does  here  at  daylight,  when 
all  is  bright  and  beautiful."     Hid.,  p.  60. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  325 

"  O !  "  cried  out  Olelbis,  "  we 

Must  start  all  things  afresh." 
So  he  made  the  sky  into  a  sieve, 
A  net  of  the  finest  mesh. 

Through  this  he  sifted  the  sunshine, 

And  then  again  the  rain — 
Throwing  down  all  of  his  flowers,  and 

The   seed  of   the  corn   and  grain. 

Transforming  all  the  first  people, 

He  made  them  over  anew, 
And  't  was  thus  the  earth  was  peopled, 

Wokwuk  to  the  forest  flew. 

Jeremiah  Curtin  says :  "  Olelbis  took  a  great  sky  net 
(kolchi  koro),  and  it  spread  out;  it  reached  to  the  ends  of 
the  sky  in  every  direction;  it  was  full  of  small,  fine  holes, 
like  a  sieve."  32  Beneath  this  canopy  the  earth  was  bare. 
"  There  is  nothing  on  it.  What  can  we  do  for  it  ?  "  cried 
Olelbis.  Clover,  beautiful  grasses,  and  plants  of  all  kinds 
were  growing  around  his  own  sweat-house,  so  at  his  grand- 
mother's suggestion  he  transferred  them  to  earth.33 

"  Next  morning  Olelbis  said :  '  Now,  my  grandmother, 
what  do  you  think  best  ?  What  are  we  to  do  with  the  people 
here  ?  Is  it  best  for  them  to  stay  in  Olelpanti  ? ' 

"  (  Our  grandson/  answered  the  old  women,  '  send  all  that 
are  not  needed  here  to  the  lower  world ;  turn  them  into  some- 
thing good  for  the  people  who  are  to  come  soon — those  fit  for 
the  place  up  here.  The  great  people,  the  best  ones,  you  will 
keep  in  Olelpanti,  and  send  down  only  a  little  part  of  each  of 
them  to  turn  into  something  in  the  world  below  and  be  of 
use  to  people  there.'  "  34 

It  is  also  recorded  in  the  myth  that  "  different  bits  of 
Wokwuk  came  down  to  the  earth  and  were  turned  into  elk 
and  various  valuable  creatures."  35  The  Indians  believe 


82 Ibid.,  p.  27.  "Ibid.,  pp.  33-34.  "Ibid.,  pp.  43-44. 

»/&«*.,  p.  495. 


326  •  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Wokwuk  to  be  a  large  bird.  But  we  can  see  in  the  legend 
the  great  wings  of  the  upper  canopy.  Bits  of  this  Wokwuk 
came  to  the  earth.  The  reclothing  and  repopulating  of  the 
devastated  area  with  new  species  shows  that  even  the 
Amerinds  have  retained  some  knowledge  of  the  great  under- 
lying principle  which  is  to  evolution  as  the  governor  is  to 
the  steam-engine. 

The  only  living  being  who  escaped  the  destruction  was 
Sedit,  the  coyote,  and  he  did  so  by  going  south.  This  is  in 
harmony  with  all  that  we  have  said  about  the  distribution  of 
animals.  The  danger  of  the  conflagration  was  of  course  first 
seen  in  the  pillars  of  the  canopy  to  the  east  and  to  the  west. 
We  read  in  the  legend  that  Olelbis  sent  his  uncle  up  on  the 
west  side  of  his  sweat-house  to  look,  saying,  "  We  are  going 
to  have  trouble."  He  also  sent  his  brother  up  on  the  east 
side  for  the  same  purpose.  Lutchi,  however,  was  watching 
the  north,  and  it  was  from  this  quarter  the  world-storm 
finally  came.36 

The  Yanas,  who  were  especially  fond  of  astronomical 
myths,  have  left  us  a  somewhat  similar  legend  to  that  of 
Olelbis.  It  is  called  "  The  First  Battle  in  the  World."  In 
this  myth,  the  Master  of  Flint,  Kaltsauna,  afterwards  trans- 
formed into  a  lizard  or  kind  of  Midgard  serpent,  prized  his 
weapon  so  highly  that  when  it  was  stolen  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  set  the  whole  world  on  fire.37 

Another  beautiful  myth  of  the  Yanas  sets  forth  a  deadly 
feud  between  the  flint-people,  that  is,  fire,  and  the  grizzlies, 

™lbid.,  p.  20. 

37  From  all  parts  of  the  world  we  have  like  tales.  Hesiod  says : 
"  Prometheus  stole  the  far-seen  ray  of  unwearied  fire  in  a  hollow1  stalk 
of  fennel"  (Theogony  566).  Some  say  he  stole  it  from  the  altar  of 
Zeus,  others  that  he  lit  his  rod  at  the  sun,  i.e.,  the  "  canopy  shiner." 
The  Australians  have  a"  similar  fable:  a  black  fellow  climbed  by  a  rope 
to  the  "  shiner."  Birds  and  animals  play  the  leading  roles  everywhere. 
A  bird  brings  fire  in  the  Andaman  Isles,  and  among  the  Ahts  it  is 
said  that  a  fish,  which  would  remind  one  of  Ea,  owned  fire;  other 
beasts,  or  canopy-forms,  stole  it. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  327 

that  is,  the  cloud-people,  denizens  of  the  canopy.  In  this 
myth  the  sunlight  has  a  series  of  adventures  which  resemble 
the  labors  of  Hercules.  Baby  Tsawadi  Kamshupa,  '  young 
red  flint  clover  fire/  like  the  infant  Hercules,  grew  very  fast. 
His  labors  were:  First,  he  broke  a  great  bow,  that  is,  a 
vapor  arch.  Second,  he  broke  a  great  many  bows.  In  fact, 
he  seems  to  have  had  quite  a  fancy  for  this  amusement,  as 
he  broke  all  that  there  were  but  one.  Third,  he  wrapped 
himself  in  a  deerskin,  as  Hercules  did  in  the  skin  of  the 
demean  lion.  This  third  labor  also  mentions  his  arrows, 
the  sun-shafts.  Fourth,  he  killed  one  Tenna  woman,  that  is, 
a  grizzly,  a  cloud.  Fifth,  he  killed  fifty.  Sixth,  he  killed 
fifty  more.  Seventh,  he  disposed  of  fifty  more,  and  finally 
we  find  that  in  his  next  labor,  the  eighth,  he  killed  all  that 
were  left  outside  of  the  sweat-house.  Ninth,  he  entered  the 
sweat-house  and  did  his  killing  inside.  Only  four  Tennas 
remained  alive.  Tenth,  he  showed  these  how  he  could  jump. 
Eleventh,  he  shot  three  of  these  creatures  with  arrows.  The 
fourth  Tenna,  however,  escaped,  and  from  that  cloud  come 
all  the  storms  that  are  in  the  world  in  our  time.  Twelfth, 
Ilhataina,  the  thunder,  was  born.  "  Ilhataina  began  to  talk," 
says  Curtin,  "  and  the  sweat-house  trembled.  He  shouted ; 
the  whole  earth  shook.  He  was  thundering."  38 

Another  beautiful  allegorical  picture  represents  this  boy 
as  trying  to  break  a  very  ugly  old  bow  whose  owner  had  been 
killed  by  Gowila,  the  terrible  and  strong  lizard.  To  break 
this  bow  Ilhataina  took  a  stone,  intending  to  crush  it.  The 
bow  flew  out  of  his  hand,  and  the  stone  fell.  One  may 
almost  imagine  that  they  hear  the  sound  of  the  thunder-clap. 
In  the  Wintu  myths,  Walskit,  lightning,  is  the  child  of  Wima 
Loimis,  grizzly-bear,  the  cloud-maiden  and  the  sun. 

The  Algonquin  hero  Michabo  is  also  somewhat  of  a  noisy 
fellow.  He  slew  the  shining  prince  of  serpents  with  a  sun- 


Kllid.,  p.  310. 


328  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

dart,  and,  further,  the  conqueror  then  clothed  himself  with 
the  skin  of  his  foe  and  drove  the  rest  of  the  serpents  to  the 
south  to  the  land  of  the  lightnings.  A  like  hero-god  of  the 
Iroquois  destroyed  with  a  thunderbolt  the  great  horned  ser- 
pent. The  God  of  Waters  was  the  Thunder  Bird.39 

Innumerable  myths  are  connected  with  the  thought  of  the 
waters  and  a  flood.  "  The  two  gods  of  the  universe/'  said 
O-dig-i-ni-ni'-a,  the  relater  of  the  mythic  lore  of  the  Hava- 
supais  (Amerinds  of  the  Southwest),  "are  Tochopa  and 
Hokomata.  Tochopa  he  heap  good.  Hokomata  heap  han- 
a-to-op'-o-gi — heap  bad — all  same  white  man's  devil.  Him 
Hokomata  make  big  row  with  Tochopa,  and  he  say  he  drown 
the  world. 

"  Tochopa  was  full  of  sadness  at  the  news.  He  had  one 
daughter  whom  he  devotedly  loved,  and  from  her  he  had 
hoped  would  descend  the  whole  human  race  for  whom  the 
world  had  been  made.  If  Hokomata  persisted  in  his  wicked 
determination,  she  must  be  saved  at  all  hazard.  So,  work- 
ing day  and  night,  he  speedily  prepared  the  trunk  of  a  pinion 
tree  by  hollowing  it  out  from  one  end.  In  this  hollow  tree 
he  placed  food  and  other  necessaries,  and  also  made  a  lookout 
window.  Then  he  brought  his  daughter,  and,  telling  her 
she  must  go  into  this  tree  and  there  be  sealed  up,  he  took  a 
sad  farewell  of  her,  closed  up  the  end  of  the  tree,  and  then 
sat  down  to  await  the  destruction  of  the  world.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  floods  began  to  descend.  Not  rain,  but  cata- 
racts, rivers,  deluges,  came,  making  more  noise  than  a  thou- 
sand Hack-a-tai-as  (Colorado  Elver)  and  covering  all  the 
earth  with  water.  The  pinion  log  floated,  and  in  safety  lay 
Pu-keh-eh,  while  the  waters  surged  higher  and  higher  and 
covered  the  top  of  Hue-han-a-patch-a  (the  San  Franciscos), 


89 "  These  are  the  same  old-world  stories  elaborated  in  the  struggles 
of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  of  Thor  and  Midgard,  of  St.  George  and  the 
Dragon,  and  a  thousand  others."  Brinton,  "  The  Myths  of  the  New 
World,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  139,  140. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  329 

Hue-ga-w66l-a  (Williams  Mountain),  and  all  the  other  moun- 
tains of  the  world. 

"  But  the  waters  of  heaven  could  not  always  be  pouring 
down,  and  soon  after  they  ceased  the  flood  upon  the  earth 
found  a  way  to  rush  into  the  sea.  And  as  it  dashed  down  it 
cut  through  the  rocks  of  the  plateaus  and  made  the  deep 
Chic-a-mi-mi  (canyon)  of  the  Colorado  River  (Hack-a-tai-a). 
Soon  all  the  water  was  gone. 

"  Then  Pu-keh-eh  found  her  log  no  longer  floating,  and 
she  peeped  out  of  the  window  Tochopa  had  placed  in  her 
boat,  and  though  it  was  misty  and  almost  dark,  she  could  see 
in  the  dim  distance  the  great  mountains  of  the  San  Francisco 
range.  And  near  by  the  canyon  of  the  Little  Colorado,  and 
to  the  north  was  the  Hack-a-tai-a,  and  to  the  west  was  the 
canyon  of  the  Havasu. 

"  The  flood  had  lasted  so  long  that  she  had  grown  to  be 
a  woman,  and,  seeing  the  water  gone,  she  came  out  and  began 
to  make  pottery  and  baskets,  as  her  father  long  ago  had 
taught  her.  But  she  was  a  woman.  And  what  is  a  woman 
without  a  child  in  her  arms  or  nursing  at  her  breasts  ?  How 
she  longed  to  be  a  mother !  But  where  was  a  father  for  her 
child  ?  Alas !  there  was  no  man  in  the  whole  universe ! 

"  Day  after  day  longings  for  maternity  filled  her  heart, 
until  one  morning — glorious  happy  morning  for  Pu-keh-eh 
and  the  Havasu  race — the  darkness  began  to  disappear,  and 
in  the  far-away  east  a  soft  and  new  brightness  appeared.  It 
was  the  triumphant  Sun  coming  to  conquer  the  long  night 
and  bring  light  into  the  world.  Nearer  and  nearer  he  came, 
and  at  last,  as  he  peeped  over  the  far-away  mesa  summits, 
Pu-keh-eh  arose  and  thanked  Tochopa,  for  here,  at  last,  was 
a  father  for  her  child.  She  conceived,  and  in  the  fulness  of 
time  bore  a  son,  whom  she  delighted  in  and  called  In-ya'-a — 
the  son  of  the  Sun."  40 


40 George   Wharton   James,    "The    Indians    of    the    Painted    Desert 
Region,"  pp.  209-211. 


330  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Here  is  another  story,  told  by  Shaman  of  the  Havasupais. 
Note  the  points  of  similarity  and  also  the  differences. 

"  In  the  days  of  long  ago  a  man  and  a  woman  (Hokomata 
and  Pukeheh  Panowa)  lived  here  on  the  earth.  By  and  by 
a  son  was  born  to  them,  whom  they  named  Tochopa.  As  he 
grew  up  to  manhood  Pukeheh  Panowa  fell  in  love  with  him 
and  wished  to  marry  him,  but  he  instinctively  shrank  from 
such  incestuous  intercourse.  The  woman  grew  angry  as  he 
repelled  her,  and  she  made  a  number  of  frogs,  which  brought 
large  volumes  of  water.  Soon  all  the  country  began  to  be 
flooded  with  water,  and  Hokomata  found  out  what  was  the 
matter.  He  took  Tochopa  and  a  girl  and  placed  them  in  the 
trunk  of  a  pinion  tree,  sealed  it  up,  and  set  them  afloat  on 
the  waters.  He  stored  the  tree  with  corn,  peaches,  pumpkins, 
and  other  food,  so  they  would  not  be  hungry,  and  for  many 
long  days  the  tree  floated  hither  and  thither  on  the  face  of 
the  waters.  Soon  the  waters  began  to  subside,  and  the  tree 
grounded  near  to  where  the  Little  Colorado  now  is.  When 
Tochopa  found  the  tree  was  no  longer  floating  he  knocked 
on  the  side,  and  Hokomata  heard  him  and  came  and  let  him 
out.  As  he  stepped  on  the  ground  he  saw  Huehanapatcha 
(the  San  Francisco  Mountains),  Huegadawiza  (Eed  Butte), 
Huegawodla  (Williams  Mountains),  and  he  said:  "I  know 
these  mountains.  This  is  not  far  from  my  country."  And 
the  water  ran  down  the  Hack-a-tha-eh-la  ('the  salty  stream,' 
or  the  Little  Colorado)  and  made  Hack-a-tai-a  (the  Grand 
Canyon  of  the  Colorado)."  41 

The  Wallapais  (Haulapais)  of  Arizona  have  the  follow- 
ing Origin  Legend : 

u  In  the  days  of  the  long  ago,  when  the  world  was  young, 
there  emerged  from  Shi-pa-pu  two  gods,  named  To-cho-pa 
and  Ho-ko-ma-ta.  When  these  brothers  first  stood  upon  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  they  found  it  impossible  to  move  around, 


IUd.,  pp.  213-214. 


MYTHS  OF  THE  AMERINDS  331 

as  the  sky  was  pressed  down  close  to  the  ground.  They 
decided  that,  as  they  wished  to  remain  upon  the  earth,  they 
must  push  the  sky  up  into  place.  Accordingly,  they  pushed 
it  up  as  high  as  they  could  with  their  hands,  and  then  got 
long  sticks  and  raised  it  still  higher,  after  which  they  cut 
down  trees  and  pushed  it  up  higher  still,  and  then,  climbing 
the  mountains,  they  forced  it  up  to  its  present  position,  where 
it  is  out  of  reach  of  all  human  kind,  and  incapable  of  doing 
them  any  injury."  42 


IUd.,  p.  188. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

RUSSIAN  MYTHS 

IN  most  of  these  Kussian  stories  the  orignal  idea  has 
been  greatly  obscured  by  the  process  of  repetition  and  the 
course  of  travel  from  one  region  to  another.  Yet  notwith- 
standing this  smoothing  off  of  the  rough  edges,  the  nature 
myths  of  this  people,  and  especially  their  folk-tales,  are  rich 
in  reminiscences  of  the  forgotten  lore  of  the  heavens.  Take 
the  legend  of  "  Yelena  the  Wise  "  as  a  sample. 

A  hero  by  the  name  of  Ivan  was  wrecked  on  an  island, 
which  in  the  long  forgotten  past  was  probably  located  in  the 
canopy-sea.  Here  he  wandered,  whether  it  was  long  or  short, 
till  he  found  a  passage  to  the  underground  kingdom,  which 
also  in  the  long  forgotten  past  was  probably  located  in  the 
canopy.  In  this  kingdom  the  six-headed  serpent  lived  and 
reigned  in  a  white  walled  castle.  Ivan  represented  himself  to 
this  being  as  his  son,  and  was  accepted  as  such. 

"  Some  time  passed,  and  the  six-headed  serpent  said : 
'  My  dear  son,  here  are  the  keys  of  all  the  chambers ;  go 
wherever  thy  desire  may  lead  thee,  but  do  not  dare  to  look 
into  that  chamber  which  is  fastened  with  two  locks,  one  of 
gold,  the  other  of  silver.  I  will  fly  around  the  world,  will 
look  at  people,  and  amuse  myself.7 

"  He  gave,  the  keys,  and  flew  away  out  of  the  underground 
kingdom  to  wander  through  the  white  world.  Ivan  Tsarevich 
remained  all  alone.  He  lived  a  month,  a  second  and  a  third 
month,  and  the  year  was  coming  to  an  end,  when  it  became 
dreary  for  him,  and  he  thought  to  examine  the  chambers; 
he  walked  and  walked  till  he  came  straight  in  front  of  the 
forbidden  chamber.  The  good  youth  could  not  restrain 

332 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  333 

himself ;  he  took  out  the  keys,  opened  both  locks,  the  gold  and 
the  silver,  opened  the  oaken  door. 

"  In  that  chamber  were  sitting  two  maidens  riveted  in 
chains:  one  was  Tsarevna  Yelena  the  Wise,  and  the  other 
her  maid.  The  Tsarevna  had  golden  wings,  and  her  maid 
silver  wings.  Said  Yelena  the  Wise :  '  Hail,  good  hero ! 
Do  us  a  service  not  great :  give  us  each  a  glass  of  spring  water 
to  drink/ 

"  Ivan,  looking  at  her  unspeakable  beauty,  forgot  all 
about  the  serpent,  pitied  the  poor  prisoners,  poured  out  two 
glasses  of  spring  water,  and  gave  them  to  the  beautiful 
women.  They  drank,  shook  themselves ;  the  iron  rings  were 
broken,  and  the  heavy  chains  fell.  The  beautiful  women 
clapped  their  wings  and  flew  through  the  open  window ;  then 
only  did  Ivan  come  to  his  mind.  He  shut  the  empty  chamber, 
came  out  on  the  porch,  sat  on  the  step,  hung  his  stormy  head 
below  his  mighty  shoulders,  and  grew  powerfully,  powerfully 
sad.  How  was  he  to  give  answer  ?  Suddenly  the  wind  began 
to  whistle,  a  mighty  storm  rose  up,  the  six-headed  serpent 
flew  home. 

"  i  Hail,  my  dear  son ! ' 

"  Ivan  answered  not  a  word. 

"  '  Why  art  thou  silent ;  or  has  something  happened  ? ' 

"  '  Evil,  father, — I  did  not  obey  thy  command.  I  looked 
into  that  chamber  where  two  maidens  were  -sitting  riveted  in 
chains ;  I  gave  them  spring  water  to  drink,  they  drank,  shook 
themselves,  clapped  their  wings,  and  flew  out  through  the 
open  window.' 

"  The  serpent  was  terribly  enraged ;  he  began  to  abuse 
and  curse  in  every  fashion.  Then  he  took  an  iron  rod,  heated 
it  red  hot,  and  gave  Ivan  three  blows  on  the  back.  '  It  is 
thy  luck,'  said  he,  '  that  thou  art  my  son ;  if  thou  wert  not, 
I  should  eat  thee  alive.'  "  1 


1  Jeremiah  Curtin,  "Myths  and  Folk  Tales  of  the  Russians,  etc./ 
pp.  220-221. 


334  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Ivan  then  asked  the  serpent's  permission  to  go  in  search 
of  Yelena  the  Wise,  whom  he  wished  to  marry.  He  was 
allowed  to  go,  but  learned  that  whoever  would  marry  her 
must  hide  three  times,  and  if  found  each  time,  he  would  then 
have  his  stormy  head  cut  off.  He  accepted  the  conditions,  and 
the  first  time  he  mounted  on  a  blue-winged  eagle's  back 
above  the  third  range  of  clouds — which  language  is  very 
suggestive  of  the  canopy — but  by  the  aid  of  her  looking-glass 
Yelena  discovered  him.  "  Ivan  came  to  the  earth,  slipped 
off  the  eagle,  went  to  the  seashore,  struck  fire,  and  put  it  to 
the  blue  sea.  Suddenly,  from  wherever  he  came,  a  giant 
pike  swam  to  shore.  '  Well,  good  youth,  creep  into  my 
mouth ;  I  '11  hide  thee  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea.'  He  opened 
his  jaws,  took  in  the  young  man,  sank  with  him  in  the  abyss 
of  the  sea,  and  covered  him  with  sand. 

"  '  Now,'  thought  Ivan,  '  perhaps  it  will  be  all  right.' 
But  the  point  was  not  there. 

"  Yelena  the  Wise  barely  looked  in  the  mirror,  and  saw 
everything  at  once.  '  Stop,  cunning  fellow !  I  see  thou  hast 
gone  into  the  giant  pike,  and  thou  art  sitting  now  in  the 
abyss  of  the  sea,  beneath  rolling  sands ;  it  is  time  to  come  to 
shore.'  The  pike  swam  to  shore,  threw  out  the  good  youth, 
and  vanished  in  the  sea."  2 

Ivan  now  placed  himself  behind  the  mirror,  which  was 
nothing  else  than  the  shining  canopy  itself.  "  A  little  later 
Yelena  the  Wise  ran  to  the  chamber,  looked  and  looked  in 
the  mirror.  She  could  not  see  her  bridegroom ;  the  appointed 
time  had  passed.  She  grew  angry,  and  with  vexation  struck 
the  glass ;  it  fell  into  fragments,  and  before  her  stood  Ivan, 
the  brave  youth. 

"  There  was  no  help  for  it, — she  had  to  yield  this  time. 
At  the  house  of  Yelena  the  Wise  there  was  no  need  of  wait- 
ing to  make  mead  or  wine;  that  day  they  had  a  noble  feast 

3  Ibid.,  p.  226. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  335 

and  a  wedding.  They  were  crowned,  and  began  to  live — to 
live  on  and  win  wealth."  3 

There  are  a  great  many  myths  of  this  character,  and 
closer  acquaintance  shows  that  in  their  primitive  form  they 
simply  portray  Ivan,  the  sun,  conquering  the  snake,  or 
canopy.  Here  is  another  illustrating  this  point : 

"  Once  there  was  an  old  couple  who  had  three  sons.  Two 
of  them  had  their  wits  about  them,  but  the  third,  Ivan,  was 
a  simpleton.  K"ow,  in  the  land  in  which  Ivan  lived  there 
was  never  any  day,  but  always  night.  This  was  a  snake's 
doing.  Well,  Ivan  undertook  to  kill  that  snake.  Then  came 
a  third  snake  with  twelve  heads.  Ivan  killed  it,  and  de- 
stroyed the  heads;  and  immediately  there  was  bright  light 
throughout  the  whole  land.  The  myth  is  pushed  on,  and 
there  is  also  the  monster  who  devours  maidens,  called  a 
'  Norka ' ;  and  Perun  takes  the  work  of  Indra  and  Saint 
George,  enters  the  castle  (dark  clouds),  and  rescues  her. 
But  the  dark  power  takes  a  distinctive  Russian  appearance 
in  the  awful  figure  of  Koshchei,  the  deathless."  4 

The  Russian  skazkas  describe  Perun,  the  god  of  light, 
as  sometimes  lying  for  a  while  veiled  in  a  shroud — the  fog — 
or  floating  over  dark  water  in  a  coffin — the  cloud.  He  is  the 
thunder-god,  the  Thor  of  the  Slavonian  tradition.  The  snake- 
canopy  dies  when  the  sun  and  moon  finally  establish  them- 
selves. 

In  the  tale  of  "  Kiss  Miklos  and  the  Green  Daughter  of 
the  Green  King,"  a  certain  kingdom  was  in  unbroken  dark- 
ness, without  sun  and  without  moon,  by  which  we  know  that 
it  was  located  under  the  canopy.  Three  brothers  went  out 
to  find  the  missing  luminaries.  The  youngest  was  Kiss 


3  Ibid.,  p.  227.  The  Russian  title  of  Afanasyeff's  work,  from  which 
the  above  myth  and  most  of  those  which  follow  are  culled,  is  "  Naro- 
diya  Russkiya  Skazki."  "  Yelena  the  Wise  "  is  found  in  part  vii,  p. 
304. 

*L.  E.  Poor,  "Sanskrit  and  its  Kindred  Literatures,"  p.  390. 


336  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Miklos,  or,  as  we  would  say  in  English,  Nicholas  Little. 
This  young  one  was  probably  one  of  the  least  of  the  new- 
born little  scenes  in  the  vapor-sky.  He  travelled  on  a  magic 
six-legged  steed  which  was  unquestionably  a  sun-dog,  or  halo, 
for  it  was  said  of  him  that  he  ate  live  coals.  Nicholas  Little 
carried  a  sun-sword  which  when  he  said  to  it,  "  Cut,  my  dear 
sword,"  forthwith  cut  down  whatever  he  wished. 

Now,  the  three  brothers  moved  on  their  way,  beyond  the 
glass  mountains,  and  beyond  that,  to  where  were  the  little 
short-tailed  pig  roots  (vapor  cloud),  and  farther  than  that,  and 
still  farther,  till  they  came  to  the  silver  bridge  (upper  bright 
belt).  Here  Nicholas  Little  encountered  the  twelve-headed 
dragon,  conquered  him,  and  gave  the  liberated  moon  to  one 
of  his  brothers  to  carry.  Then  they  went  on  to  the  golden 
bridge,  which  was  still  higher.  Here  Nicholas  Little  killed 
the  twenty-four-headed  dragon  and  liberated  the  sun,  which 
he  gave  to  his  other  brother  to  carry. 

On  the  way  home  the  two  wives  of  the  serpents,  and  the 
old  woman,  their  mother,  conspired  to  kill  the  heroes.  The 
old  woman  was  the  canopy.  She  asks  her  two  daughters-in- 
law,  telling  them :  "  Just  prop  up  my  two  eyes  with  that  iron 
bar,  which  weighs  twelve  hundred  pounds,  so  that  I  may  look 
around."  The  great  size  of  this  bar  shows  us  how  tenaciously 
the  truth  regarding  the  immensity  of  the  old  hag  lived  on. 

Her  two  daughters-in-law  then  took  the  twelve-hundred- 
pound  iron  bar  and  opened  the  old  woman's  eyes;  then  she 
spoke  thuswise :  ( If  that  cursed  Nicholas  Little  has  killed 
my  two  sons,  I  will  turn  into  a  mouth,  one  jaw  of  which  will 
be  on  the  earth  and  the  other  I  will  throw  to  the  sky,  so  as  to 
catch  that  cursed  villain  and  his  two  brothers,  and  grind 
them  as  mill-stones  grind  wheat.' 

The  dragon's  wives  changed  themselves  into  other  objects. 
The  first  became  a  bubbling  water,  but  Nicholas  recognized 
her  and  killed  her;  the  second  became  a  fruit  tree;  but 
Nicholas  also  recognized  her  and  killed  her. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  337 

Jeremiah  Curtin  says :  "  Now  they  journeyed  and  trav- 
elled through  forty-nine  kingdoms,  till  at  last  Miklos  saw 
from  a  distance  that  an  unmercifully  great  mouth,  one  jaw 
of  which  was  on  earth  and  the  other  thrown  up  to  the  heavens, 
was  nearing  them  like  the  swiftest  storm,  so  that  they  had 
barely  time  left  to  run  into  the  door  of  the  Lead  Friend's 
house.  And  a  thousandfold  was  their  luck  that  they  got  in; 
for  the  unmercifully  great  mouth  stood  before  the  threshold 
of  the  Lead  Friend,  so  that  whoever  should  go  out  would 
fall  into  it,  and  be  swallowed  that  minute." 

To  make  a  long  story  short  in  the  telling,  Lead  Friend 
and  Nicholas  poured  eighteen  tons  of  boiling  lead  into  the 
old  witch's  mouth  and  burned  out  her  stomach.  But  after 
doing  this,  Lead-Melting  Friend,  like  Eurystheus  in  the 
Hercules  myth,  kept  Nicholas  under  his  power  until  he 
should  perform  the  labors  connected  with  bringing  the  Green 
Daughter  of  the  Green  King  to  him. 

The  other  two  sons  returned  home.  Curtin  says :  "  Then 
they  let  out  the  steed  of  the  bright  moon  and  the  steed  of  the 
shining  sun  on  the  highway  of  the  heavens,  but  both  the 
moon  and  the  sun  shone  sadly.  For  this  reason  they  shone 
sadly:  that  he  was  without  merited  reward  who  had  really 
freed  them  from  the  dragons,  for  Kiss  Miklos  (Nicholas) 
was  now  in  never-ending  slavery  to  the  Lead  Friend. 

"  Once  the  Lead  Friend  called  Miklos  and  found  this  to 
tell  him :  '  Well,  Miklos,  if  thou  wilt  bring  me  the  Green 
Daughter  of  the  Green  King,  I  will  let  thee  go  free,  and  I 
will  strike  from  thee  the  three-hundred-pound  ring  and  the 
twelve-hundred-pound  chain.  Therefore,  good  friend  Miklos, 
I  advise  thee  to  start  in  the  morning  with  the  bright  shining 
sun,  and  bring  me  my  heart's  desire." 

After  many  labors  and  the  use  of  great  magic,  Nicholas 
secured  the  Green  Daughter,  but  desiring  her  for  himself, 
they  then  contrived  to  find  Lead  Friend's  life,  which  he  did 


338  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

not  carry  in  his  own  person.  This  they  took  from  him  and 
thus  obtained  their  freedom. 

The  clear  sky,  the  personification  of  which  was  our  hero, 
was  now  freed,  so  he  and  his  wife  immediately  started  for 
home.  "  Now,  the  shining  sun  had  shone  so  sadly,  and  the 
bright  moon  had  beamed  so  sadly,  that  it  could  not  be  more 
so;  but  the  moment  they  beheld  Miklos  and  his  wife  in  the 
chariot  of  glass  and  gold,  the  bright  sun  shone  joyously,  and 
so  did  the  clear  moon."  5 

In  the  above  skazka  it  is  stated  that  Lead  Friend  does  not 
carry  his  life  in  his  own  person.  Koshchei  the  Deathless  has 
like  immutability.  He  is  merely  one  of  the  many  incarna- 
tions of  the  spirit  of  the  great  dark  canopy-belt.  Sometimes 
he  is  described  as  altogether  serpent-like.  His  life  to  the 
ancients  seemed  to  be  apart  from  the  manifestation  of  his 
being,  and  therefore  from  their  viewpoint  he  could  not  be 
killed  until  this  hiding-place  should  be  broken  into  and  the 
true  sun  should  appear. 

To  illustrate  that  the  death  of  the  canopy  appeared  to  be, 
not  in  itself,  but  that  it  was  conquered  by  Ivan  the  sun,  we 
give  an  abridgment  and  interpretation  of  the  skazka  of 
Koshchei  Without-Death  as  follows: 

"  Ivan  Tsarevich  was  a  precocious  infant  that  would  not 
go  to  sleep  unless  rocked  by  his  father  the  Tsar,  who,  speak- 
ing to  him,  would  say :  '  Sleep,  little  son,  sleep,  and  when 
thou  art  grown  up  a  man  I  will  get  thee  Peerless  Beauty  as 
bride.'  The  Tsarevich  would  then  fall  asleep  and  sleep  three 
days  and  three  nights  at  a  time.  This  happened  three  times, 
and  then,  waking  up,  he  asked  his  father's  blessing,  saying: 
e  I  am  going  forth  to  marry.'  The  father  replied :  '  Whither 
canst  thou  go  ?  Thou  art  but  nine  days  of  age  in  all.' ' 

Ivan,  having  been  thus  cradled  and  rocked  in  the  canopy, 

8  Jeremiah  Curtin,  "  Myths  and  Folk  Tales  of  the  Russians,  Western 
Slavs,  and  Magyrs,"  pp.  475-516.  Afanasyeff,  "  Narodiya  Russkiya 
Skazki,"  part  i,  p.  1.  In  the  original,  "  The  Lead  Friend." 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  339 

was  indeed  a  very  active  hero.  He  procured  for  himself, 
as  all  good  sun-heroes  should,  a  magic  horse,  and  forthwith 
sallied  out  into  the  white  world  to  find  Peerless  Beauty  as 
bride.  He  rode  far,  far.  The  day  was  growing  short,  night 
was  coming  on.  A  house  stood  like  a  town ;  each  room  was 
a  chamber.  He  tied  his  horse  to  a  copper  ring,  went  in  to  a 
sun-obscuring  chamber  and  spent  the  night. 

The  next  morning  he  rose  early,  rode  far  with  distance, 
the  day  was  shortening.  There  stood  another  house  like  a 
town,  each  room  a  chamber.  He  tied  his  horse  to  a  silver 
ring,  went  in,  spent  the  night  in  a  sun-obscuring  chamber. 
The  third  day  and  night  passed  in  like  manner,  but  at  this 
last  cloud  mansion1  he  tied  his  horse  to  a  golden  ring.  Appar- 
ently these  three  rings  were  three  different  belts  in  the  vapor 
cloud  homes. 

Next  morning  the  old  grandmother  who  furnished  him 
the  last  night's  lodging  called  all  the  fishes  (fish-gods)  of  the 
great  sea  and  all  the  animals  of  the  land  (gods-terrestrial) 
and  asked  them  for  information  of  Peerless  Beauty,  but  the 
fishes  and  creatures  could  give  no  information.  The  birds 
were  called  and  they  also  gave  answer :  "  We  have  not  seen 
her  with  sight,  we  have  not  heard  her  with  hearing."  They 
had  just  spoken  when  in  came  the  Mogol  bird,  fell  on  the 
ground,  and,  as  the  tale  says,  "  there  was  no  light  in  the 
window."  6  This  great  canopy-bird  was  a  light  extinguisher 
and  knew  all  about  Peerless  Beauty.  She  took  Ivan  on  her 
back,  and  as  she  flew  she  fed  on  the  cloud-oxen  and  vessels  of 
water. 


«In  the  Norka  Skazka  (Afanasyeff  i,  No.  6)  a  like  bird  is  men- 
tioned. The  text  reads,  "  Presently  there  came  a  bird  flying — such  a 
big  one,  that  the  light  was  blotted  out  by  it.  It  had  been  dark  there 
before,  but  now  it  became  darker  still."  In  the  story  of  Usuinya  we 
have  another  instance  of  a  great  bird.  "  The  Usuinya  Bird  is  a 
twelve-headed  snake,"  says  the  text.  "  The  monster  is  not  so  much  a 
bird  as  a  flying  dragon."  He  stole  the  golden  apples  (stars)  from  a 
monarch's  garden  (the  egg-hole  of  the  north),  but  was  killed  by  Ivan 
(the  sun).  Erlenvein  No.  41. 


340  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

To  make  a  long  story  short  in  the  telling,  he  obtained 
Peerless  Beauty,  and  was  returning  with  her,  but,  being 
wearied,  he  lay  down  to  sleep,  and  slept  exactly  nine  days 
and  nights.  Meanwhile  Koshchei  Without-Death  bore  away 
Peerless  Beauty  to  his  own  kingdom. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  time-periods  of  the  infant  sun's 
slumbers  amounts  to  the  same  total  as  this  later  instance;  it 
is  therefore  natural  to  find  that  when  he  awoke  he  had  to  do 
his  work  all  over  again.  The  routine  of  nature  repeats  itself. 

He  came  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Deathless  one,  now 
determined  to  find  out  where  his  death  was.  He  asked  Peer- 
less Beauty  to  find  out.  Koshchei  fooled  her  once,  fooled 
her  twice,  then  he  said  unto  her,  "  Oh,  simple  woman,  I 
was  joking  with  thee !  My  death  is  in  an  egg,  the  egg  is  in 
a  duck,  and  the  duck  is  in  a  stump  floating  on  the  sea." 

When  Koshchei  went  off  to  war,  Peerless  Beauty  baked 
cakes  for  Tvan  Tsarevich,  and  told  him  where  to  look  for 
the  death  of  Koshchei.  He  found  it  and  returned  to  the 
canopy-darkened  home  of  the  Deathless.  Koshchei  Without- 
Death  was  sitting  at  the  window,  cursing. 

"  '  Oh,  Ivan  Tsarevich,  thou  wishest  to  take  Peerless 
Beauty  from  me ;  and  so  thou  wilt  not  live.' 

"  '  Thou  didst  take  her  from  me  thyself,'  answered  Ivan 
Tsarevich,  took  the  egg  from  his  bosom,  and  showed  it  to 
Koshchei.  '  What  is  this  ?  > 

"  The  light  grew  dim  in  the  eyes  of  Koshchei ;  then  he 
became  mild  and  obedient.  Ivan  Tsarevich  threw  the  egg 
from  one  hand  to  the  other.  Koshchei  Without-Death  stag- 
gered from  corner  to  corner.  This  seemed  pleasant  to  the 
Tsarevich.  He  threw  the  egg  more  quickly  from  hand  to 
hand,  and  broke  it ;  then  Koshchei  fell  and  died. 

"  Ivan  Tsarevich  attached  the  horses  to  his  golden  car- 
riage, took  whole  bags  filled  with  gold  and  silver,  and  went 
to  his  father."  7 

7  Cm-tin,  "Myths  and  Folk-Tales  of  the  Russians,  etc.,"  p.   106  ff. 
Afanasyeff  pt.  vii,  p.  72. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  341 

It  is  not  a  stretch  of  our  imagination  that  places  this 
skazka  in  the  ranks  of  the  snn  myths.  Professor  A.  de 
Gubernatis  sees  in  the  duck  the  dawn,  in  the  hare  (which 
some  of  the  variants  of  this  story  substitute  for  the  log)  the 
moon  sacrificed  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  egg  the  sun.8 
This  interpretation  is  in  the  right  direction,  but  its  author 
lacked  the  knowledge  of  the  hypothesis  under  consideration. 
Ivan,  the  hidden  sun,  who  rode  on  the  magic-steed,  brought 
into  the  presence  of  a  darkened  world  the  true  sun,  the  egg, 
and  forthwith  Koshchei,  the  serpent,  died. 

W.  E.  S.  Ealston,  of  the  British  Museum,  says :  "  In  one 
of  the  descriptions  of  KoshcheTs  death,  he  is  said  to  be  killed 
by  a  blow  on  the  forehead  inflicted  by  the  mysterious  egg — 
that  last  link  in  the  magic  chain  by  which  his  life  is  darkly 
bound.  In  another  version  of  the  same  story,  but  told  of  a 
Snake,  the  fatal  blow  is  struck  by  a  small  stone  found  in  the 
yolk  of  an  egg,  which  is  inside  a  duck,  which  is  inside  a 
hare,  which  is  on  an  island  (i.e.,  the  fabulous  island  Buyan). 
In  another  variant  Koshchei  attempts  to  deceive  his  fair 
captive,  pretending  that  his  '  death  ?  resides  in  a  besom,  or 
in  a  fence,  both  of  which  she  adorns  with  gold  in  token  of  her 
love.  Then  he  confesses  that  his  (  death '  really  lies  in  an 
egg,  inside  a  duck,  inside  a  log  which  is  floating  on  the  sea. 
Prince  Ivan  gets  hold  of  the  egg  and  shifts  it  from  one  hand 
to  the  other.  Koshchei  rushes  wildly  from  side  to  side  of 
the  room.  At  last  the  prince  breaks  the  egg.  Koshchei  falls 
on  the  floor  and  dies." 

Our  author  goes  on  to  say :  "  This  heart-breaking  epi- 
sode occurs  in  the  folk-tales  of  many  lands.  It  may  not  be 
amiss  to  trace  it  through  some  of  its  forms.  In  a  !N"orse  story 
a  Giant's  heart  lies  in  an  egg,  inside  a  duck,  which  swims 
in  a  well,  in  a  church,  on  an  island.  With  this  may  be  com- 
pared another  Norse  tale,  in  which  a  Haugebasse,  or  Troll, 
who  has  carried  off  a  princess,  informs  her  that  he  and  all 
his  companions  will  burst  asunder  when  above  them  passes 
8  "  Zoological  Mythology,"  i,  269. 


342  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

6  the  grain  of  sand  that  lies  under  the  ninth  tongue  in  the 
ninth  head '  of  a  certain  dead  dragon.  The  grain  of  sand 
is  found  and  brought,  and  the  result  is  that  the  whole  of  the 
monstrous  brood  of  Trolls  or  Haugebasser  is  instantaneously 
destroyed.  In  a  Transylvanian- Saxon  story  a  Witch's  '  life ' 
is  a  light  which  burns  in  an  egg,  inside  a  duck,  which  swims 
on  a  pond,  inside  a  mountain,  and  she  dies  when  it  is  put 
out.  In  the  Bohemian  story  of  '  The  Sun-horse  '  a  Warlock's 
'  strength  '  lies  in  an  egg,  which  is  within  a  duck,  which  is 
within  a  stag,  which  is  under  a  tree.  A  Seer  finds  the  egg 
and  sucks  it.  Then  the  Warlock  becomes  as  weak  as  a  child, 
'  for  all  his  strength  had  passed  into  the  Seer/  In  the 
Gaelic  story  of  '  The  Sea-Maiden/  the  (  great  beast  with  three 
heads,'  which  haunts  the  loch  cannot  be  killed  until  an  egg 
is  broken,  which  is  in  the  mouth  of  a  trout  which  springs 
out  of  a  crow,  which  flies  out  of  a  hind,  which  lives  on  an 
island  in  the  middle  of  the  loch.  In  a  Modern  Greek  tale 
the  life  of  a  dragon  or  other  baleful  being  comes  to  an  end 
simultaneously  with  the  lives  of  three  pigeons  which  are 
shut  up  in  an  all  but  inaccessible  chamber,  or  inclosed  within 
a  wild  boar.  Closely  connected  with  the  Greek  tale  is  the 
Servian  story  of  the  dragon  whose  '  strength  '  (snaga*)  lies  in 
a  sparrow,  which  is  inside  a  dove,  inside  a  hare,  inside  a 
boar,  inside  a  dragon  (a j  day  a)  which  is  in  a  lake,  near  a 
royal  city.  The  hero  of  the  story  fights  the  dragon  of  the 
lake,  and  after  a  long  stuggle,  being  invigorated  at  the  crit- 
ical moment  by  a  kiss  which  the  heroine  imprints  on  his  fore- 
head, he  flings  it  high  in  the  air.  When  it  falls  to  the  ground 
it  breaks  in  pieces,  and  out  comes  the  boar.  Eventually  the 
hero  seizes  the  sparrow  and  wrings  its  neck,  but  not  before 
he  has  obtained  from  it  the  charm  necessary  for  the  recovery 
of  his  missing  brothers  and  a  number  of  other  victims  of 
the  dragon's  cruelty."  9 

•"Russian  Fairy  Tales  and  Muscovite  Folk  Lore,"  chap,  ii,  Myth- 
ological. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  343 

Another  tale  telling  of  a  rescue  is  told  of  how  Mirko,  the 
king's  son,  went  forth  to  battle  with  the  overpowering  enemies 
of  his  father's  friend,  the  Hero  of  the  Plain ;  succoring  him, 
he  brought  him  to  his  sire  in  triumph.  The  tale  is  so  full  of 
the  romance  of  the  sky  that  we  give  it  as  follows: 

To  begin  with,  like  Nicholas  Little,  Mirko  also  came  into 
possession  of  a  magic  mare.  When  she  had  eaten  the  glowing 
coals  of  the  sun,  she  became  such  a  golden-haired  steed  as 
the  Star  of  the  Dawn.  On  this  creature  Mirko  passed  over 
the  copper,  silver,  and  golden  bridges  of  the  sky,  beyond  this 
they  climbed  the  summitless,  high  glass  mountain  and  forth- 
with they  crossed  that  very  mountain. 

The  horse  stamped,  and  said,  (  Open  thy  eyes  master ! 
What  dost  thou  see  ? '  "  i  I  see,'  said  Mirko,  '  when  I  look 
behind,  something  dark,  as  large  as  a  great  plate.' 

"  '  Oh,  my  master,  that  is  the  round  of  the  earth.  But 
what  dost  thou  see  before  thee  ? ' 

"  '  I  see  a  narrow  glass  road,  rising  like  a  half  circle. 
On  both  sides  of  it  is  emptiness  of  bottomless  depth.' 

"  '  My  dear  master,  we  must  pass  over  that  road ;  but  the 
passage  is  so  delicate  that  if  one  of  my  feet  slip  the  least 
bit  to  one  side  or  the  other,  there  is  an  end  to  our  lives.  But 
trust  thyself  to  me,  and  close  thy  eyes.  Hold  fast,  I  will 
manage.' 

"  With  that  she  swept  on,  and  in  an  instant  stamped 
again.  i  Open  thy  eyes !  What  dost  thou  see  ? ' 

"  '  I  see  behind  me,'  said  Mirko,  '  a  faint  light ;  in  front 
of  me  is  darkness  so  dense  that  when  I  hold  my  finger  before 
my  eyes  I  cannot  see  it.' 

"  '  Well,  we  must  go  through  that  also ;  shut  thy  eyes 
and  hold  firmly.' 

"  She  sped  on  anew,  and  again  stamped.  '  Open  thy 
eyes !  What  dost  thou  see  now  ? ' 

"  '  I  see,'  said  Mirko,  i  the  most  glorious,  light,  beautiful, 


344  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

snow-covered  mountains,  and  in  the  midst  of  them  a  silken 
meadow ;  in  the  centre  of  the  silken  meadow  something  dark/ 

"  '  This  silken  meadow/  said  the  steed,  '  belongs  to  the 
Hero  of  the  Plain;  and  the  dark  object  in  the  middle  is  his 
tent,  woven  from  black  silk.  Now  close  thy  eyes  or  not  as 
may  please  thee.  We  shall  go  there  directly/  Mirko  spurred 
the  steed,  and  they  were  at  the  tent  in  a  twinkle." 

The  Hero  of  the  Plain  said :  "  '  This  great  silken  meadow 
which  thou  seest  is  every  day  filled  with  enemies,  and  every 
day  I  cut  them  down;  but  to-day  as  thou  art  with  me,  we 
shall  not  hurry.  Come,  let  us  eat  and  drink ;  let  them  crowd.' 
Then  the  two  went  in,  ate  and  drank  till  the  enemy  had  so 
increased  that  they  reached  almost  to  the  tent.  The  Hero 
of  the  Plain  sprang  then  to  his  feet  and  said :  '  Up,  my 
comrade,  we  '11  soon  finish.'  Both  leaped  into  their  saddles 
and  rushed  to  the  centre  of  the  enemy,  crying  out,  '  Sword 
from  the  sheath ! '  The  swords  hewed  off  the  heads  of  the 
countless  multitude,  so  there  was  scarcely  room  to  move  for 
bodies.  Twelve  of  the  opposing  warriors  now  flee  from  the 
rear,  the  Hero  of  the  Plain  and  Mirko  pursuing.  They 
come  to  a  glass  mountain  where  there  is  a  nice,  level  space; 
he  sees  them  running  upon  it.  He  gallops  after  them;  but 
all  at  once  they  are  as  if  the  ground  had  swallowed  them. 
Mirko  springs  to  the  place  where  they  disappear,  finds  a 
breach  and  a  deep  opening  with  winding  steps.  His  steed 
rushes  into  the  opening  and  down  the  stairs;  they  are  soon 
in  the  lower  world  (lower  canopy  region). 

"  Mirko  looks  around  the  lower  world  and  sees  a  shining 
diamond  castle,  which  serves  instead  of  the  sun  down  there. 
The  twelve  fleeing  warriors  rush  towards  the  castle,  he  after 
them,  and,  ordering  his  sword  out  of  the  sheath,  cuts  off 
their  heads  in  a  moment.  The  next  instant  Mirko  stands 
before  the  diamond  castle.  Within,  there  is  such  a  clatter 
and  pounding  that  the  whole  interior  trembles  and  shivers. 
He  dismounts  and  enters.  Inside  is  an  old  witch  weaving, 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  345 

and  the  racket  is  deafening.  The  building  is  full  of  armed 
men.  The  infernal  old  witch  weaves  them.  When  she 
throws  her  shuttle  to  the  right,  two  hussars  spring  out  on 
horseback;  when  she  throws  it  to  the  left,  two  men  on  foot 
jump  out  armed. 

"  Meanwhile  Sword  out  of  the  Sheath  cuts  down  the 
newly  made  soldiers,  but  the  old  witch  weaves  more.  (She 
is  a  canopy  ever  giving  birth  to  new  clouds.)  '  Well/  thinks 
Mirko  to  himself,  '  I  shall  never  get  out  of  here,  at  this  rate ;' 
but  he  commands  the  sword,  and  it  cuts  the  old  witch  into 
small  pieces  (which  shows  that  it  was  a  good  sun-shaft). 
Then  he  carries  the  loom  into  the  yard,  where  there  is  a 
pile.  He  throws  everything  on  the  pile  and  sets  fire  to  it; 
but  when  all  is  burned  one  of  the  old  witch's  ribs  springs  out, 
begins  to  turn  round  in  the  dust,  and  she  rises  up  again 
entire.  *  *  * 

"  '  If  I  leave  the  old  witch  alive,  she  will  put  up  her  loom 
again,  and  the  Hero  of  the  Plain  will  never  be  able  to  free 
himself  from  his  enemies.'  Again  he  orders  his  sword  to 
cut  the  old  witch  in  pieces;  he  throws  the  pieces  into  the 
fire,  where  they  are  consumed,  so  that  she  can  never  rise 
again.  (This  scene  is  identical  with  the  burning  heavens 
at  Ragnarok. )  He  mounts  his  sieed  and  searches  the  under- 
ground world,  but  nowhere  does  he  find  a  living  soul. 

"  Then  he  puts  spurs  to  his  steed,  springs  up  the  circular 
stairs,  and  issues  forth  into  the  upper  world.  Straightway 
he  comes  down  from  the  glass  mountain,  and,  passing  over 
the  silken  meadow,  returns  to  the  Hero  of  the  Plain,  who 
thought  Mirko  had  left  him.  But  when  he  saw  his  friend 
returning,  he  went  out  to  meet  him  with  great  joy,  and  took 
him  into  the  tent,  where  they  feasted  together  gloriously. 
And  when  the  prince  rose  to  go,  he  offered  him  his  silken 
meadow  and  all  the  royal  domains;  but  Mirko  answered: 
6  My  dear  elder  brother,  I  have  finished  thy  enemies ;  they 
will  never  attack  thy  kingdom  again.  I  have  this  now  to  ask, 


346  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

that  thou  come  with  me  to  my  father  the  king,  who  has  long 
been  waiting  for  thee.'  *  *  * 

"  At  that  time  the  old  king  was  sitting  at  the  window  of 
his  palace  next  the  rising  sun,  and  lo !  he  beholds  two  horse- 
men riding  towards  him.  Straightway  he  takes  his  field- 
glass,  and  sees  that  it  is  his  trusty  old  comrade,  the  Hero  of 
the  Plain,  together  with  his  son  Mirko.  He  runs  out,  and 
from  the  tower  commands  that  a  twelve-year-old  ox  be  killed ; 
and  when  Mirko  and  the  Hero  arrive,  the  great  feast  is  ready. 
He  receives  them  with  joy,  kisses  and  embraces  them;  this 
time  both  his  eyes  are  laughing.  Then  they  sat  down  to  the 
feast,  ate  and  drank  with  gladness.  Meanwhile  the  Hero  of 
the  Plain  spoke  of  Mirko' s  doings,  and,  among  other  things, 
said  to  the  old  king :  '  Well,  comrade,  thy  son  Mirko  will 
be  a  better  hero  than  we  were ;  he  is  already  a  gallant  youth. 
Thou  hast  cause  to  rejoice  in  him.'  "  10 

There  is  no  questioning  of  the  fact  that  this  class  of 
skazkas  belong  to  the  sun-myths.  One  of  them  even  bears  the 
evidence  in  its  title.  It  is  called  "  The  Witch  and  the  Sun's 
Sister."  It  begins  with  an  account  of  Ivan  fleeing  from  his 
witch-sister  (another  name  for  Koshchei,  the  canopy).  Of 
course  she  followed  him. 

Before  proceeding,  it  may  be  well  to  remark  that  this 
incident  is  common  to  nearly  all  the  sun-myths;  thus  in  the 
skazka  of  Koshchei  the  Deathless,  after  Ivan  had  carried 
away  Peerless  Beauty,  the  Deathless  one  followed  them  and 
carried  her  away  as  Ivan  slept.  Again,  in  the  legend  of 
"  The  Green  Daughter  of  the  Green  King "  the  daughter 
herself  on  the  homeward  way  plays  tricks,  some  of  which 
are  as  follows :  "  The  Green  Daughter  of  the  Green  King 
beckoned  Miklos  to  her  and  asked  him :  (  Hei !  my  heart's 
beautiful  love,  renowned  Kiss  Miklos,  tell  me,  on  thy  true 
soul,  art  thou  taking  me  for  thyself  or  for  another  ?  If  thou 

10 "Myths    and    Folk-Tales    of    the    Russians,    etc.,"    pp.    434-448. 
Afanasyeff's  collection,  pt.  i,  p.  436. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  347 

art  not  taking  me  for  thyself,  I  will  play  tricks  with  thee.' 

"  ( I  am  taking  thee  for  myself ;  I  am  taking  thee  for 
another/  answered  Kiss  Miklos. 

Well,  no  more  was  said.  Once,  when  turning  and  wind- 
ing, they  look  in  the  coach ;  it  is  empty.  The  beautiful  girl 
is  gone.  In  a  moment  they  stop,  search  the  coach,  but  find 
her  nowhere. 

"  '  Here,  good  friend  Far  Seer,'  said  Kiss  Miklos,  '  look 
around !  Whither  has  our  beautiful  bird  flown  ? ' 

"  Far  Seer  did  n't  let  that  be  said  twice.  In  the  turn  of 
an  eye  he  surveyed  the  round  earth,  but  he  saw  not  the  beau- 
tiful maiden. 

"  e  She  is  not  on  the  dry  earth/  said  Far  Seer. 

"  '  Look  into  the  sea/  said  Kiss  Miklos. 

"  Far  Seer  surveyed  the  deep  sea,  and  saw  her  hiding 
in  the  belly  of  a  three-pound  whale,  near  the  opposite  shore 
of  the  sea. 

"  '  Ah,  I  see  where  she  is ! ' 

"  '  Where  ? '  asked  Miklos. 

"  '  Hidden  in  the  belly  of  a  three-pound  whale.' 

"  '  Here,  good  friend  Great  Drinker/  said  Miklos,  c  come 
hither,  and  drink  up  the  water  of  this  deep  sea ! ' 

"  Great  Drinker  was  not  slow.  He  lay  face  under  by  the 
sea,  and  with  three  draughts  drank  up  all  the  water  (evapo- 
ration drinking  up  the  vapor-belt).  The  three-pound  whale 
was  lying  then  in  a  bay  near  the  opposite  shore. 

"  '  Now,  good  brother  Swift  Runner/  said  Kiss  Miklos, 
'  step  out  and  bring  me  that  three-pound  whale  which  is 
lying  near  the  opposite  shore.' 

"  Swift  Runner  rushed  in  a  moment  across  the  bottom, 
of  the  sea,  and  brought  back  the  three-pound  whale.  Miklos 
opened  the  whale,  took  out  its  stomach,  cut  it  carefully,  and 
out  fell  the  Green  Daughter  of  the  Green  King.  Then  he 
seated  her  in  the  coach,  and  they  drove  on." 

This  was  not  the  only  effort  put  forth  by  the  Green 


348  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Daughter  to  escape.  They  looked  into  the  six-horse  canopy 
coach,  and  she  was  not  there.  Far  Seer  was  called  and  he 
discovered  her  in  her  own  home,  "  in  the  very  centre  of  the 
garden,  hidden  on  the  highest  top  of  an  apple-tree,  in  the 
middle  of  a  ripe  red  apple. "  Swift  Runner  was  sent  and 
fetched  the  apple,  or  star,  containing  her.  Kiss  Miklos  seated 
her  in  the  coach,  and  they  fared  farther.11 

But  to  return  from  this  digression  to  the  skazka  of  "  The 
Witch  and  the  Sun's  Sister  " :  "  Prince  Ivan  heard  a  loud 
noise  and  looked  back.  There  was  his  sister  chasing  him.  So 
he  waved  his  handkerchief,  and  a  deep  lake  lay  behind  him. 
While  the  witch  was  swimming  across  the  water,  Prince  Ivan 
got  a  long  way  ahead.  But  on  she  came  faster  than  ever; 
and  now  she  was  close  at  hand!  Vertodub  (a  cloud-giant) 
guessed  that  the  Prince  was  trying  to  escape  from  his  sister, 
so  he  began  tearing  up  oaks  and  strewing  them  across  the 
road  (heaped  up  the  world-tree).  A  regular  mountain  did 
he  pile  up!  There  was  no  passing  by  for  the  witch!  So 
she  set  to  work  to  clear  the  way.  She  gnawed,  and  gnawed, 
and  at  length  contrived  by  hard  work  to  bore  her  way 
through ;  but  by  this  time  Prince  Ivan  was  far  ahead. 

"  On  she  dashed  in  pursuit,  chased  and  chased.  Just  a 
little  more  and  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  escape.  But 
Yertogor  (another  cloud-giant)  spied  the  witch,  laid  hold  of 
the  very  highest  of  all  the  mountains,  pitched  it  down  all 
of  a  heap  on  the  road,  and  flung  another  mountain  right  on 
top  of  it.  While  the  witch  was  climbing  and  clambering, 
Prince  Ivan  rode,  and  found  himself  a  long  way  ahead.  At 
last  the  witch  got  across  the  mountain,  and  once  more  set 
off  in  pursuit  of  her  brother.  By-and-by  she  caught  sight  of 
him,  and  exclaimed: 

"  '  You  shan't  get  away  from  me  this  time !  '  And  now 
she  is  close,  now  she  is  just  going  to  catch  him! 


"Curtin,  "Myths  and  Folk-Tales,  etc.,"  pp.  501-504. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  349 

"  At  that  very  moment  Prince  Ivan  dashed  up  to  the 
abode  of  the  Sun's  Sister  and  cried: 

"  '  Sun,  Sun!  open  the  window!'  ('  Old  sun  canopy- 
shiner  open  a  hole! '). 

"  The  Sun's  sister  opened  the  window,  and  the  Prince 
bounded  through  it,  horse  and  all. 

"  Then  the  witch  began  to  ask  that  her  brother  might  be 
given  up  to  her  for  punishment.  The  Sun's  Sister  would 
not  listen  to  her,  nor  would  she  give  him  up.  Then  the  witch 
said: 

"  '  Let  Prince  Ivan  be  weighed  against  me,  to  see  which 
is  the  heavier.  If  I  am,  then  I  will  eat  him ;  but  if  he  is, 
then  let  him  kill  me.' 

"  This  was  done.  Prince  Ivan  was  the  first  to  get  into 
one  of  the  scales ;  then  the  witch  began  to  get  into  the  other. 
But  no  sooner  had  she  set  foot  in  it  than  up  shot  Prince 
Ivan  in  the  air,  and  that  with  such  force  that  he  flew  right  up 
into  the  sky,  and  into  the  chamber  of  the  Sun's  Sister. 

"  But  as  for  the  Witch-Snake,  she  remained  down  below 
on  earth."  12 

The  Sun's  Sister  may  be  identified  with  a  bright  upper 
cloud-belt,  and  because  she  is  bright  she  is  the  true  sister  of 
Ivan  the  sun.  In  the  dawn  the  Witch-Snake,  or  false  sister, 
steps  into  the  lower  heavens,  which  are  the  mythical  pair  of 
scales,  and  forthwith  the  sun  flies  up  into  his  true  sister's 
shining  abode. 

In  the  Russian  skazkas  these  palaces  of  the  canopy  fre- 
quently contain  hidden  or  forbidden  chambers  from  which 
sky-scenes  are  released  by  the  sun-heroes.  The  Tale  of 
"  Yelena  the  Wise  "  is  of  this  character.  Usually  the  hero 
and  heroine  are  chased  by  the  parent  canopy,  which  is  the 
captor  in  the  cases  above  cited.  Ralston  gives  a  number  of 
instances  of  a  like  nature,  from  which  we  select  the 
following : 

12 W.  R.  S.  Ralston,  "Russian  Fairy  Tales,"  chap,  ii,  Mythological. 


350  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  The  story  of  Immortal  Koshchei  is  one  of  frequent 
occurrence,  the  different  versions  maintaining  a  unity  of 
idea,  but  varying  considerably  in  detail.  In  one  of  them, 
in  which  Koshchei's  part  is  played  by  a  Snake,  the  hero's 
sisters  are  carried  off  by  their  feathered  admirers  without  his 
leave  being  asked — an  omission  for  which  a  full  apology  is 
afterwards  made.  In  another,  the  history  of  i  Fedor  Tugarin 
and  Anastasia  the  Fair/  the  hero's  three  sisters  are  wooed 
and  won,  not  by  the  Falcon,  the  Eagle,  and  the  Raven,  but 
by  the  Wind,  the  Hail,  and  the  Thunder.  ^Modern  storm 
heroes  supplanted  the  old  canopy  warriors.)  He  himself 
marries  the  terrible  heroine  Anastasia  the  Fair,  in  the  for- 
bidden chamber  of  whose  palace  he  finds  a  snake  hung  up 
by  one  of  the  ribs.  He  gives  it  a  lift  and  it  gets  free  from 
its  hook  and  flies  away,  carrying  off  Anastasia  the  Fair. 
Fedor  eventually  finds  her,  escapes  with  her  on  a  magic  foal 
which  he  obtains,  thanks  to  the  aid  of  grateful  wolves,  bees, 
and  crayfish,  and  destroys  the  snake  by  striking  it  i  on  the 
forehead  '  with  the  stone  which  was  destined  to  be  its  death. 
In  a  third  version  of  the  story,  the  hero  finds  in  the  forbidden 
chamber  '  Koshchei  the  Deathless,  in  a  caldron  amid  flames, 
boiling  in  pitch.'  There  he  has  been,  he  declares,  for  fifteen 
years,  having  been  lured  there  by  the  beauty  of  Anastasia 
the  Fair.  In  a  fourth,  in  which  the  hero's  three  sisters 
marry  three  beggars,  who  turn  out  to  be  snakes  with  twenty, 
thirty,  and  forty  heads  apiece,  Koshchei  is  found  in  the  for- 
bidden chamber,  seated  on  a  horse  which  is  chained  to  a 
caldron.  He  begs  the  hero  to  unloose  the  horse,  promising, 
in  return,  to  save  him  from  three  deaths."  13 

It  has  been  shown  that  Koshchei  was  the  personified 
canopy-belt.  In  one  skazka,  he  is  even  called  a  snake.  Now, 
when  the  sun  first  appeared  as  a  dim  light  in  this  blanket,  no 
doubt  it  was  thought  to  be  a  part  of  the  same  cloud-being,  the 
soul  or  life  as  it  were  of  Koshchei  the  Deathless ;  then  as  the 

18  Hid. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  351 

orb  of  day  came  into  clearer  view  it  was  a  horse  chained  to 
the  caldron  of  flame  and  heat.  Later  developments  disclosed 
the  fact  that  the  sun  was  not  a  part  of  the  old  canopy,  and 
the  accepted  stories  had  to  be  recast  with  the  sun  as  a  separate 
hero,  making  war  on  the  decrepit  serpent.  Ralston  says : 

"  All  the  monstrous  forms  which  figure  in  the  stories 
we  have  just  been  considering  appear  to  be  merely  different 
species  of  the  great  serpent  family.  Such  names  as  Koshchei, 
Chudo,  Yudo,  Usuinya,  and  the  like,  seem  to  admit  of  ex- 
change at  the  will  of  the  story-teller  with  that  of  Zniei 
Goruinuich,  the  many-headed  Snake,  who  in  Russian  story- 
land  is  represented  as  the  type  of  all  that  is  evil."  14  An  evil 
canopy  was  an  evil  thing  indeed! 

Another  name  given  to  such  a  canopy  or  snake  was  '  Baba 
Yaga.'  One  of  these  canopy  mothers  ordered  a  servant  to 
swing  the  cradle  of  her  infant  son.  The  Baba  Yaga's  children 
were  horrible  creatures,  but  this  maid  performed  her  task 
faithfully,  so  the  old  woman  sent  her  home  with  a  blue  coffer 
filled  with  money.  The  bright-colored  blue  canopy  brought 
the  greenhouse  conditions  along  with  plenty  on  the  earth 
beneath.  Another  servant  followed,  did  badly,  and  was  dis- 
missed with  a  red-coffer,  out  of  which  issued  fire.  The  good 
canopy  had  turned  evil.  Ragnarok,  or  the  day  when  the 
canopy  had  descended  into  the  atmospheric  region  and  ap- 
peared bloody  red,  had  arrived. 

The  evil  Baba  Yagas  brought 'on  the  Ice  age.  One  of 
these  individuals  is  represented  in  the  skazkas  as  petrifying 
her  victims,15  which  trait  connects  her  with  Medusa.  There 
were  three  sister  Baba  Yagas  that  may  be  likened  to  the  three 
'Gorgons. 

Yasilissa,  or  "  Golden  Tress,"  was  visiting  one  of  these 
creatures,  and  it  appears  that  she  wanted  to  grow  wise.  To 

14  ibid. 

15  KoshcheTs  name  is  said  to  be  derived  from  '  host,'  a  bone,  whence 
comes  a  verb  signifying  to  become  ossified,  petrified,  or  frozen.    Ibid. 


352  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

grow  wise  one  must  ask  questions.  "  Ask  away,"  the  Baba 
Yaga  said ;  "  '  only  it  is  n't  every  question  that  brings  good. 
Get  much  to  know,  and  old  soon  you  '11  grow/ 

"  '  I  only  want  to  ask  you,  granny,  about  something  I 
saw.  As  I  was  coming  here,  I  was  passed  by  one  riding  on 
a  white  horse;  he  was  white  himself,  and  dressed  in  white. 
Who  was  he  ? ' 

"  (  That  was  my  bright  Day ! '  answered  the  Baba  Yaga. 

" '  Afterwards  there  passed  me  another  rider,  on  a  red 
horse ;  red  himself,  and  all  in  red  clothes.  Who  was  he  ? ' 

"  e  That  was  my  red  Sun ! ?  answered  the  Baba  Yaga. 

"  e  And  who  may  be  the  black  rider,  granny,  who  passed 
by  me  just  at  your  gate  ? ' 

"  '  That  was  my  dark  Night ;  they  are  all  trusty  servants 
of  mine."  16 

The  following  incident  connected  with  a  Baba  Yaga 
occurs  in  the  story  of  Mara-Morenna.  Prince  Ivan,  the  sun, 
went  to  one  of  the  old  women  to  ask  for  a  heroic  steed.  This 
seems  natural,  for  if  we  put  the  question  ourselves,  where 
else  could  the  sun  go  to  in  order  to  procure  a  vapor-arc  or 
shell  for  his  steed  ?  The  canopy-vapor,  or  Baba  Yaga,  alone 
could  supply  them.  Ivan  had  to  pass  over  this  world-roof 
each  day;  it  follows  that  he  could  get  such  a  steed  as  he 
required  only  from  her.  She  set  him  the  task  of  watching 
her  mares  for  three  days,  promising  him  the  steed  he  desired 
if  he  brought  them  back  safely  to  the  stable.  At  the  end  of 
the  appointed  time,  though  he  had  performed  the  task  suc- 
cessfully, a  bee  told  him  to  steal  a  certain  colt  and  depart 
in  the  night.  As  the  story  goes; : 

"  The  Baba  Yaga  went  to  sleep.  In  the  dead  of  the  night 
Prince  Ivan  stole  the  sorry  colt,  saddled  it,  jumped  on  its 
back,  and  galloped  away  to  the  fiery  river.  When  he  came 
to  that  river  he  waved  the  handkerchief  three  times  on  the 


lUd. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  353 

right  hand,  and  suddenly,  springing  goodness  knows  whence, 
there  hung  across  the  river,  high  in  the  air,  a  splendid  bridge. 
The  Prince  rode  across  the  bridge  and  waved  the  handker- 
chief twice  only  on  the  left  hand ;  there  remained  across  the 
river  a  thin — ever  so  thin  a  bridge !  1T 

"  When  the  Baba  Yaga  got  up  in  the  morning,  the  sorry 
colt  was  not  to  be  seen!  Off  she  set  in  pursuit.  At  full 
speed  did  she  fly  in  her  iron  mortar,  urging  it  on  with  the 
pestle,  sweeping  away  her  traces  with  the  broom.  She  dashed 
up  to  the  fiery  river,  gave  a  glance,  and  said,  '  A  capital 
bridge ! '  She  drove  on  the  bridge,  but  had  got  only  half- 
way when  the  bridge  broke  in  two,  and  the  Baba  Yaga  went 
flop  into  the  river.  There  truly  did  she  meet  with  a  cruel 
death !  "  18  The  appearance  of  the  sun  brought  about  the 
cruel  death  of  the  canopy.  Heaven's  bridge  fell  under  her. 

Of  the  general  character  of  the  Russian  snake,  Ralston 
says :  "  His  outline,  like  that  of  the  cloud  with  which  he  is 
so  frequently  associated,  and  which  he  is  often  supposed  to 
typify,  is  seldom  well-defined.  "Now  in  one  form  and  now  in 
another,  he  glides  a  shifting  shape,  of  which  it  is  difficult 
to  obtain  a  satisfactory  view.  *  *  * 

"But  in  most  cases  he  is  a  serpent  which  in  outward 
appearance  seems  to  differ  from  other  ophidians  only  in  being 
winged  and  polycephalous,  the  number  of  his  heads  gen- 
erally varying  from  three  to  twelve.  *  *  * 

"  In  one  story  he  appears  to  have  stolen,  or  in  some  way 
concealed,  the  daylight ;  in  another  the  bright  moon  and  the 
many  stars  come  forth  from  within  him  after  his  death."  19 

One  of  the  skazkas  embracing  some  of  the  above  concep- 
tions is  as  follows.  It  is  entitled  e  Ivan  Popyalof .' 

"  Now,  in  the  land  in  which  Ivan  lived  there  was  never 


"Irradiation  made  the  annular  bridge  appear  larger  as  the  sun 
rode  over  it,  just  as  the  filament  in  the  incandescent  electric  light 
seems  to  grow  in  size  when  the  current  is  passing. 


23 


354  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

any  day,  but  always  night.  This  was  a  Snake's  doing.  Well, 
Ivan  undertook  to  kill  that  Snake,  so  he  said  to  his  father, 
'  Father  make  me  a  mace  five  poods  in  weight.'  And  when 
he  had  got  the  mace  he  went  out  into  the  field  and  flung  it 
straight  up  in  the  air,  and  then  he  went  home.  The  next  day 
he  went  out  into  the  fields  to  the  spot  from  which  he  had 
flung  the  mace  on  high,  and  stood  there  with  his  head  thrown 
back.  So  when  the  mace  fell  down  again  it  hit  him  on  the 
forehead.  And  the  mace  broke  in  two. 

"  Ivan  went  home  and  said  to  his  father,  '  Father,  make 
me  another  mace,  a  ten-pood  one.'  And  when  he  had  got  it 
he  went  out  into  the  fields  and  flung  it  aloft.  And  the  mace 
went  flying  through  the  air  for  three  days  and  three  nights. 
On  the  fourth  day  Ivan  went  out  to  the  same  spot,  and  when 
the  mace  came  tumbling  down  he  put  his  knee  in  the  way, 
and  the  mace  broke  over  it  into  three  pieces. 

"  Ivan  went  home  and  told  his  father  to  make  him  a  third 
mace,  one  of  fifteen  poods  weight.  And  when  he  had  got  it, 
he  went  out  into  the  fields  and  flung  it  aloft.  And  the  mace 
was  up  in  the  air  six  days.  On  the  seventh  Ivan  went  to  the 
same  spot  as  before.  Down  fell  the  mace,  and  when  it  struck 
Ivan's  forehead,  the  forehead  bowed  under  it.  Thereupon 
he  said,  '  This  mace  will  do  for  the  Snake.'  20  *  *  * 

"  Presently  there  rode  up  a  Snake  with  three  heads.  His 
steed  stumbled,  his  hound  howled,  his  falcon  clamored.  Then 
cried  the  Snake: 

"  '  Wherefore  hast  thou  stumbled,  O  Steed  ?  hast  thou 
howled,  O  Hound  ?  hast  thou  clamored,  O  Falcon  ? ' 

"  '  How  can  I  but  stumble,'  replied  the  Steed,  '  when 
under  the  boarding  sits  Ivan  Popyalof  ? ' 

"  Then  said  the  Snake,  c  Come  forth,  Ivanushka !  Let 
us  try  our  strength  together.'  Ivan  came  forth,  and  they 

20  This  is  the  same  weapon  as  the  magic  cudgel  found  in  so  many 
of  the  Slavonic  folk-tales.  It  is  a  kind  of  degraded  form  of  the  myths 
which  tell  of  the  hammer  of  Thor  and  the  lance  of  Indra. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  355 

began  to  fight.  And  Ivan  killed  the  Snake,  and  then  sat 
down  again  beneath  the  boarding. 

"  Presently  there  came  another  Snake,  a  six-headed  one, 
and  him,  too,  Ivan  killed.  And  then  there  came  a  third, 
which  had  twelve  heads.  Well,  Ivan  began  to  fight  with  him, 
and  lopped  off  nine  of  his  heads.  The  Snake  had  no  strength 
left  in  him.  Just  then  a  raven  came  flying  by,  and  it 
croaked : 

"<Krof!  Krof!' 

"  Then  the  Snake  cried  to  the  Raven,  '  Fly,  and  tell  my 
wife  to  come  and  devour  Ivan  Popyalof.' 

"  But  Ivan  cried :  '  Fly,  and  tell  my  brothers  21  to  come, 
and  then  we  will  kill  this  Snake,  and  give  his  flesh  to  thee.' 

"  And  the  Raven  gave  ear  to  what  Ivan  said,  and  flew  to 
his  brothers  and  began  to  croak  above  their  heads.  The 
brothers  awoke,  and  when  they  heard  the  cry  of  the  Raven, 
they  hastened  to  their  brother's  aid.  And  they  killed  the 
Snake,  and  then,  having  taken  his  heads,  they  went  into  his 
hut  and  destroyed  them.  And  immediately  there  was  bright 
light  throughout  the  whole  land.  *  *  * 

"  After  killing  the  Snake's  daughters,  Ivan  and  his 
brothers  went  on  homewards.  Presently  came  the  Snake's 
Wife  flying  after  them,  and  she  opened  her  jaws  from  the 
sky  to  the  earth,  and  tried  to  swallow  up  Ivan.  But  Ivan 
and  his  brothers  threw  three  poods  of  salt  into  her  mouth. 
She  swallowed  the  salt,  thinking  it  was  Ivan  Popyalof,  but 
afterwards — when  she  had  tasted  the  salt,  and  found  out 
it  was  not  Ivan — she  flew  after  him  again."  22  And  again 
the  battle  with  the  canopy  was  renewed. 

The  Skazka  of  Ivan  Buikovich  contains  a  variant  of  a 
part  of  this  story.  The  name  Buikovich  means  '  Bull's 
son.'  23  In  this  story,  however,  "  the  dragon  which  the 


21  Mock-suns,  halos.  *  lUd. 

2SAfanasyeff,  vol.  vii,  p.  3. 


356  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Slavonic  St.  George  kills'  is  called,  not  a  snake,  but  a  Chudo- 
Yudo.  Ivan  watches  one  night  while  his  brothers  sleep. 
Presently  up  rises  '  a  six-headed  Chudo-Yudo,'  which  he 
easily  kills.  The  next  night  he  slays,  but  with  more  diffi- 
eulty,  a  nine-headed  specimen  of  the  same  family.  On  the 
third  night  appears  '  a  twelve-headed  Chudo-Yudo,'  mounted 
on  a  horse  '  with  twelve  wings,  its  coat  of  silver,  its  mane  and 
tail  of  gold.'  Ivan  lops  off  three  of  the  monster's  heads,  but 
they,  like  those  of  the  Lernsean  Hydra,  become  reattached 
to  their  necks  at  the  touch  of  their  owner's  '  fiery 
finger.'  *  *  * 

"  Presently  Ivan  smites  off  six  of  his  antagonist's  heads, 
but  they  grow  again  as  before.  *  *  * 

"  His  brothers  awake,  and  hasten  to  his  aid,  and  the 
Chudo-Yudo  is  destroyed.  The  '  Chudo-Yudo  wives,'  as  the 
widows  of  the  three  monsters  are  called,  then  proceed  to  play 
the  parts  attributed  in  *  Ivan  Popylof '  to  the  Snake's 
daughters."  24 

Children  of  the  parent  snake,  the  great  world-environing 
cloud-belt,  are  common  in  the  tales  of  all  peoples,  tongues, 
and  nations.  Persia  represents  the  good  and  the  evil  prin- 
ciples of  life  by  two  serpents.  Cashmere,  it  is  said,  had  at 
least  seven  hundred  places  where  this  vapor-creature  in  some 
form  or  another  was  worshiped.  China  is  the  kingdom  of 
the  serpent,  over  which  floats  the  '  Dragon-flag.'  On  the  pots 
and  clothing  of  its  humblest  citizen  the  original  sky-serpent's 
children  are  found. 

How  shall  we  account  for  this  universal  and  persistent 
worship  of  a  creature  neither  beautiful,  wise,  nor  beneficent, 
if  we  do  not  accept  the  hypothesis  under  consideration? 
Hindustan  gave  to  the  worship  of  this  creature  a  grim  and 
awful  power.  The  merciless  Juggernaut  is  a  seven-headed 
dragon  descendant  of  the  old  original  sky-parent,  and  in  that 

94  W.  R.  S.  Ralston,  "  Russian  Fairy  Tales,  etc.,"  ch.  ii,  Mythological. 


RUSSIAN  MYTHS  357 

country  the  fifth  day  of  the  month  Srvana  is  still  sacred  to 
those  gods  which  bear  the  form  and  manner  of  serpents. 

In  the  Egyptian,  Greek,  and  Roman  mythologies  the 
prominence  given  to  the  serpent  may  well  startle  the  uniniti- 
ated. In  our  next  chapter  the  most  marvelous  of  all  the 
accounts,  the  history  of  the  Midgard  Serpent,  will  be  set 
forth.  In  the  Old  Testament  the  serpent  and  his  children 
lived  as  a  part  of  the  story  of  sorrow.  Out  of  the  serpent's 
root  has  come  forth  a  cockatrice,  or  adder,  and  his  fruit  has 
been  a  fiery  flying  serpent.25 

In  America  the  traces  of  the  universal  '  trail  of  the  ser- 
pent '  is  equally  prominent,  as  we  have  just  seen  in  our  last 
chapter.  Mexico  and  Peru  had  their  serpent  gods,  and  the 
cult  had  deteriorated  to  that  extent  that  human  sacrifice  was 
offered.  The  great  mounds  of  Ohio  and  Iowa  are  really  ser- 
pent images.  Purchase  in  his  e  Pilgrimage  '  found  among 
the  Virginian  Indians  the  snake  head-dress  of  their  priests 
to  be  almost  similar  to  those  worn  by  the  priests  of  Isis  and 
Bacchus. 

To  this  may  be  appended  the  remark — Yes,  serpent  wor- 
ship has  girded  the  earth,  even  as  the  prototype  did  of  old ! 


«slsa.  xiv:  29. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS 

THE  Scandinavians  in  a  fuller  sense  than  any  other 
people  seem  to  have  realized  that  their  gods  were  dead.  The 
priestly  influence  in  the  other  nations  endeavored  to  keep 
alive  the  children  of  the  serpent,  but  the  free  life  of  the 
northern  races  had  schooled  them  to  observe  nature  and  think 
for  themselves,  therefore  it  was  not  so  easy  to  dictate  to  them. 
They  knew  that  their  gods  were  dead.  Ragnarok  was  fol- 
lowed by  regeneration. 

Since  little  effort  was  made  to  keep  the  system  alive,  the 
tales  of  this  land  have  suffered  less  by  interpolations  than 
any  other.  The  missionaries  of  a  new  religion  have  always 
endeavored  to  blend  the  old  things  in  with  the  new,  in  order 
to  make  it  easier  for  their  recruits  to  accept  their  way  of 
thinking.  Scandinavian  mythology  did  not  suffer  from  this 
source  until  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  As  a  result, 
the  drama  of  the  ages  is  perhaps  more  clearly  set  forth  by 
the  Nature  myths  of  our  ancestors  than  by  any  other  people. 

"  Surely  it  seems  a  very  strange-looking  thing,  this 
Paganism,"  says  Carlyle ;  "  almost  inconceivable  to  us  in 
these  days.  A  bewildering,  inextricable  jungle  of  delusions, 
confusions,  falsehoods,  and  absurdities,  covering  the  whole 
field  of  life  !  A  thing  that  fills  us  with  astonishment ;  almost, 
if  it  were  possible,  with  incredulity — for  truly  it  is  not  easy 
to  understand  that  sane  men  could  ever  calmly,  with  their 
eyes  open,  believe  and  live  by  such  a  set  of  doctrines."  A  lit- 
tle reflection  tells  us  that  it  is  true,  they  could  not  have  so 
lived;  neither,  according  to  the  words  of  our  author,  could 
they  have  "  fashioned  for  themselves  such  a  distracted  chaos 
of  hallucinations  by  way  of  Theory  of  the  Universe."  From 

358 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  359 

the  standpoint  of  the  old  interpretation  of  mythology,  as  our 
author  says,  "  it  all  looks  like  an  incredible  fable."  l 

As  intimated  above,  our  ancestors  have  left  us  not  only  a 
theogony,  or  birth  of  the  gods,  but  also  a  theoktony,  or  death 
of  the  gods.  The  Babylonians  and  Greeks  saw  their  gods 
gradually  drift  away  northwards.  The  Scandinavians,  since 
they  lived  nearer  the  last  scene,  actually  saw  their  downfall. 
No  wonder  their  myths  are  sterner  and  more  rigorous ! 

Five  acts  unfold  the  various  stages  of  canopy  decline  as 
recognized  by  this  northern  mythology :  First — The  mother 
of  creation,  the  canopy  from  whence  all  new  things  seemed  to 
emanate.  Second — The  time  preceding  Baldur's  death,  which 
was  the  golden  age  under  the  greenhouse  roof.  Third — The 
death-scene  of  Baldur,  the  sun-lit  shiner.  Fourth — The  time 
of  transition  immediately  after  Baldur' s  death.  Fifth — The 
last  time,  Ragnarok,  '  The  Twilight  of  the  Gods,'  when  the 
skies  fell  and  all  things  were  made  anew. 

Not  only  is  the  Scandinavian  record  of  the  order  of  events 
connected  with  canopy  decline  preserved  in  truer  chrono- 
logical sequence,  but  their  cosmological  scheme  also  is  purer 
and  of  a  far  finer  texture.  Nine  worlds  are  located  in  their 
plan  of  the  universe.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
universe  as  they  knew  it  was  our  earth  and  its  swaddling- 
bands  of  dust,  gas,  and  vapor,  with  which  it  was  bound 
roundabout. 

Of  the  nine  worlds  the  highest  of  all  was  Asgard,  the 
home  of  the  JSsir.  There  were  twelve  of  these  gods.  Odin 
was  the  thirteenth.  He  was  called  the  (  All-father/  and  his 
throne  rose  above  the  other  twelve. 

Asgard  was  the  snowy  summit  of  the  cloud-canopy,  the 
Olympus  of  Northern  mythology.  Above  it,  the  records  say, 
was  stretched  the  Bridge  Bifrost.  Now,  it  may  be  well  to 
revert  to  the  general  principles  on  which  this  hypothesis  is 
founded. 


"  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,"  lecture  i. 


360  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

It  is  postulated  that  above  the  atmosphere  there  existed 
until  quite  recent  times  a  very  attenuated  ring-blanket  of  fine 
planetesimal  dust,  accompanied  by  a  gaseous  envelope  more 
or  less  divided  into  zonal  belts.  This  upper  structure  was 
nearly  transparent,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  ring-blanket 
was  invisible.  The  latter  was  the  Bridge  Bifrost.2  It  is 
further  postulated  that  the  upper  structure  was  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  all  the  peculiar  cloud-phenomena  in  the  atmos- 
phere beneath. 

Take  the  great  Krakatoa  Eruption  in  July  and  August, 
1883,  and  see  the  lesson  that  it  has  taught  us  on  the  consti- 


2  After  the  old  system  of  zonal-belts  passed  away  and  the  new 
conditions  came  into  existence  Bifrost  became  associated  with  the 
rainbow.  We  may  infer  from  this  that  the  original  structure  had  a 
very  delicate  appearance. 

The  Japanese  speak  of  'The  Floating  Region.'  In  their  myth  of 
creation  the  story  runs  that,  "The  sun,  earth,  and  moon  were  still 
attached  to  each  other  like  a  head  to  the  neck,  or  arms  to  the  body. 
They  were  little  by  little  separating,  the  parts  joining  them  growing 
thinner  and  thinner.  This  part,  like  an  isthmus,  was  called  *  Heaven's 
Floating  Bridge.'" 

From  Izanafli,  the  Creator's  right  eye,  appeared  Susa-noO,  the 
'  Ruler  of  the  Moon ' ;  that  is,  of  a  crescent- vapor-arc.  The  account 
goes  on  to  tell  us  that  he  had  also  a  wonder-child  named  Amaterasu. 
This  maiden  was  '  The  Heaven  Illuminating  Spirit.'  "  At  that  time 
the  distance  between  Heaven  and  earth  was  not  very  great,  and  he 
sent  her  up  to  the  blue  sky  by  the  Heaven-uniting  pillar,  on  which 
the  heavens  rested  as  on  a  prop.  She  easily  mounted  it,  and  lived  in 
the  sun  (the  shining  canopy),  illuminating  the  whole  heavens  and 
earth.  The  sun  (the  shiner,  afterwards  the  true  sun)  now  gradually 
separated  from  the  earth,  and  both  moved  farther  and  farther,  until 
they  rested  where  they  now  are.  Izanagi  next  spoke  to  Susa-noO,  the 
Ruler  of  the  Moon  (crescent  canopy  arc),  and  said,  'Rule  thou  over 
the  new-born  earth,  and  the  blue  waste  of  the  sea  with  its  multitudi- 
nous salt  waters.'  *  *  *  In  sending  her  to  her  dominion  (i.e.,  present 
dominion  after  the  vapor-canopy  had  thinned  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
show  the  true  lunar  orb  through  it),  Izanagi  gave  her  the  necklace 
of  precious  stones  from  his  neck,  and  told  her  to  go  up  by  way  of 
the  floating  bridge.  As  the  sun  (canopy  shiner)  was  then  near,  she 
ascended  without  difficulty."  Frank  S.  Dobbins,  "  Gods  and  Devils  of 
Mankind,"  pp.  308,  311,  312. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  361 

tution  of  our  atmosphere.  Before  the  occurrence,  but  few 
had  the  slightest  suspicion  that  twenty  miles  over  our  heads 
a  mighty  tempest  is  incessantly  hurrying  with  a  speed  much 
greater  than  the  most  awful  hurricane.  All  that  Krakatoa 
did  was  simply  to  provide  the  charges  of  dust  by  which  for 
one  brief  period  this  wind  was  made  visible.  In  the  autumn 
of  1883  the  newspapers  were  full  of  -accounts  of  strange  ap- 
pearances in  the  heavens.  These  came  from  Ceylon,  the  West 
Indies,  and  other  tropical  places.  All  had  the  same  tale  to 
tell.  All  these  phenomena  were  due  to  Krakatoa.  It  was  in 
the  late  autumn  that  the  marvelous  series  of  celestial  phe- 
nomena connected  with  the  great  eruption  began  to  be 
displayed  in  our  own  country.  Then  it  was.  that  the  glory 
of  the  ordinary  sunsets  was  enhanced  by  a  splendor  which 
has  dwelt  in  the  memory  of  all  those  who  were  permitted  to 
see  it.  The  dust  from  Krakatoa  produced  this.  Three  times 
round  went  the  glorified  dust-cloud,  and  then  drifted  like  the 
canopies  of  old  towards  the  poles.  What  would  it  have  done 
if  it  had  been  elevated  to  yet  greater  heights  ? 

It  is  postulated  that  infalling  planetesimal  material  from 
the  upper  structure,  and  vapors  sucked  up  to  far  greater 
heights  than  can  now  be  attained',  floated  in  this  border-land 
of  the  outer  atmosphere.  This  was  the  first  world  of  the 
Scandinavians,  Asgard,  the  land  of  the  ^sir.  It  is  a  matter 
of  record  that  the  celestial  bridge  touched  the  outer  edge  of 
the  home  of  the  gods.  Sleipnir,  Odin's  marvelous  sun-horse, 
used  to  rush  unhesitatingly  upon  the  bridge,3  which  trembled 

8 Other  Scandinavian  sun-horses  were  Glad  (bright),  Gyller  (gilder 
or  golden),  Gler  (the  glassy,  the  shining  one),  Skeidbrimer  (fleet- 
foot),  Silfrintop  (silver  top),  Gisl  (the  sunbeam),  and  Goldtop, 
HeimdalFs  steed  of  beauty,  whose  mane  shone  like  the  sun.  Anderson's 
Norse  Mythology,  6th  ed.,  p.  189. 

Along  with  these  rapid  ones  may  be  mentioned  Frey's  boar,  which, 
like  the  Boar  of  Erymanthus,  which  Hercules  brought  to  his  master, 
was  a  vapor-form.  His  golden  bristles  flashed  in  the  sunlight,  and  he 
is  said  to  have  been  so  swift  that  Sleipnir  with  his  eight  legs  could 
not  outstride  him. 


362  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

beneath  his  weight.    In  other  words,  its  flimsy  material  was 
seen  to  vibrate  and  quiver  in  the  strong  light  of  the  sun. 

The  second  world  of  the  Scandinavians  was  Midgard, 
the  world  of  men.  The  Midgard  serpent  was  a  clean-cut  belt 
of  cloud  extending,  like  all  these  forms,  east  and  west  in  the 
lower  atmosphere ;  its  contour  being  due  to  the  zonal  belts  in 
the  outer  gaseous  envelope.  It  is  recorded  that  the  river 
Ocean  flowed  around  the  world  of  men.  In  the  original  con- 
ception this  Ocean  river  was  the  Midgard  serpent,  it  was 
supposed  to  be  united  with  the  terrestrial  ocean.  Thus  when 
Thor  the  storm  or  '  Thunder  god '  was  in  the  hall  of  the 
giant  Utgard-Loki,  he  was  obliged  to  drink  from  a  horn,  large 
at  the  top,  but  exceedingly  long,  winding  coil  after  coil  to 
such  a  distance  that  the  end  could  not  be  distinguished. 
Indeed,  says  the  record,  "  the  end  of  the  horn  which  could 
not  be  seen  reached  to  the  great  river."  Thor  drank  so  deeply 
that  the  men  on  Midgard  thereafter  called  it  the  ebb  of  the 
tide. 

The  third  world  was  Jotunheim,  the  upper  giant  world, 
which  was  said  to  be  on  the  same  plane  as  Ocean.  The  giant- 
cloud  forms  sometimes  broke  loose  from  the  controlling  zonal 
provinces,  obscured  the  whole  sky,  and  made  war  on  the  gods 
above.  At  the  time  of  the  end,  commonly  called  Ragnarok, 
all  zonal  restraint  was  removed. 

Norse  mythology,  like  the  mythologies  of  other  lands, 
does  not  take  much  notice  of  regions  not  seen.  The  great 
under-world  contained  four  more  of  the  nine  worlds,  but 
these  localities  existed  on  the  horizon,  not  beneath  it.  The 
world  of  the  ancients  was  supposed  to  be  flat,  and  it  was 
not  until  later  ages,  when  the  gods  had  been  swept  away, 
and  knowledge  began  to  be  diffused,  that  the  idea  of  subter- 
ranean passages  and  cavities  became  general.  These  passages 
were  finally  introduced  in  order  to  account  for  the  reappear- 
ance of  the  heavenly  bodies  each  day  in  the  east.  Though 
not  especially  emphasized,  northern  mythology  does  mention 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  363 

two  worlds  that  were  said  to  be  lower  still  than  the  horizon- 
worlds.  These  were  the  land  of  subterranean  fire,  and  the 
world  of  torture.  From  Surt's  deep  fiery  dales  the  light  of 
the  midnight  sun  was  reflected  on  the  upper  regions  of  the 
belted  sky,  hence  since  fire  came  from  this  direction  these 
worlds  were  known  to  exist.  The  one  was  in  the  east  and 
the  other  in  the  west.4 

The  four  horizon-worlds  were  Mimir's  Kealm,  Niflheim, 
Vanirheim,  and  the  Realm  of  Urd. 

Mimir's  region  was  originally  the  eye-hole  or  open  place 
in  the  northern  sky,  hence  the  beginning-place  of  the  true  sky 
scenes,  but  as  time  went  on  and  the  heavens  cleared  the  east 
was  seen  to  be  the  beginning-place,  or  birth-place,  of  the  new 
scenes,  hence  confusion  ensued  and  Mimir's  Realm  was  said 
to  be  in  the  east. 

Vanir's  land  was  probably  originally  in  the  south,  where 
another  cloud-belt  system  was  seen  on  the  distant  horizon. 
This  land  of  the  Yanir  was  the  home  of  a  noble  race  of  gods 
akin  to  the  ^Esir.5 

From  the  other  two  realms,  which  we  believe  were  orig- 
inally located  in  the  east  and  the  west,  the  great  Ygdrasil's 
roots  sprang  high  into  the  sky,  the  one  from  Urd's  realm,  the 
other  from  Niflheim.  Niflheim,  according  to  our  deductions, 
was  in  the  east.  It  was  the  lower  giant-world,  cold,  dark,  and 
misty.  Urd's  realm  was  in  the  west,  the  land  of  departing 
day,  the  kingdom  of  the  dead. 

The  mighty  ash-tree,  Ygdrasil,  was  supposed  to  support 
the  whole  universe;  its  third  root  penetrated  Asgard.  This 
same  thought  permeates  Greek  mythology. 


4  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  some  accounts  the  realm  of  Surt, 
instead  of  being  the  lowest,  is  said  to  be  the  highest  world,  topping 
even  Asaheim.  " Muspelheim,"  says  Anderson,  "the  fire-world,  is  the 
highest  Gimle  (heaven)."  Norse  Mythology,  6th  ed.,  p.  187.  How 
could  our  ancestors  tell  where  it  was  situated?  Fire  was  seen  in  the 
highest  regions,  and  yet  again  it  seemed  to  come  directly  from  below. 

6  Another  name  given  to  the  gods,  which  is  yery  suggestive  of  their 
nature,  is  '  tivar/  the  beaming  ones. 


364  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  Thus  the  universe  definitively  organized  by  Zeus,  with 
the  assistance  of  Harmonia,  was  depicted  by  Pherecydes  as 
an  immense  tree,  furnished  with  wings  to  promote  its  rotary 
motion, — a  tree  whose  roots,  were  plunged  into  the  abyss, 
and  whose  extended  branches  sustained  the  unfolded  veil  of 
the  firmament,  decorated  with  the  types  of  all  terrestrial  and 
celestial  forms."  6 

"  Everywhere,"  says  Daniel  G.  Brinton,  "  we  find  traces 
of  the  world-tree,  the  primal  growth  which  lifted  man  from 
his  dark  anterior  dwelling-place,  or  from  the  earth  to  heaven. 
The  Mbocobis  of  Paraguay  tell  of  such  a  one  which  existed 
in  the  good  old  times,  and  by  which  the  souls  of  the  departed 
could  climb  commodiously  to  the  delightful  streams  of  Para- 
dise ;  but  a  wicked  old  woman,  angered  at  her  luck  in  fishing 
in  the  celestial  waters,  changed  herself  into  a  rat  and  envi- 
ously gnawed  the  roots  of  the  tree,  so  that  it  fell  and  could 
no  more  be  raised."  7 

The  fact  that  this  beautiful  tree  is  supposed  to  have 
existed  in  the  heavens  is  readily  explained  by  the  laws  of 
perspective.  To  an  observer,  the  'striated  or  banded  belts 
appearing  to  rise  from  beneath  the  horizon  to  the  east  or  to 
the  west  necessarily  appeared  to  diverge  as  the  bands  or  belts 
ascended  towards  the  zenith.  Hence,  to  the  imagination  of 
man,  the  whole  scene  bore  a  decided  resemblance  to  an  im- 
mense tree,  its  trunk  on  the  earth,  its  'spreading  branches 
overhead.  We  all  know  how  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  when 
they  approach  the  horizon  are  magnified  by  the  increased 
thickness  of  the  atmosphere  through  which  we  view  them; 
so  it  was  with  the  roots  of  Ygdrasil.  'No  wonder  that  the 
ancients  thought  that  the  stumps  were  rooted  on  mother 
earth ! 

Such  is  the  world-tree,  or,  as  Eagozin  says,  "  the  majestic 
conception  of  the  Cosmic  Tree,  which  has  its  roots  on  earth 


8 Lenormant,  "Beginnings  of  History,"  p.  549. 
7 "  The  Myths  of  the  New  World/'  3d  ed.5  p.  118. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  365 

and  heaven  for  its  crown,  while  its  fruit  are  the  golden  apples 
— the  stars,  and  Fire, — the  red  lightning  (or  rather  reflected 
and  refracted  sunlight). 

"  All  these  suggestive  and  poetical  fancies  would  in  them- 
selves suffice  to  make  the  tree-symhol  a  favorite  one  among 
so  thoughtful  and  profound  a  people  as  the  old  Chaldeans. 
But  there  is  something  more.  It  is  intimately  connected 
with  another  tradition,  common,  in  some  form  or  other,  to  all 
nations  who  have  attained  a  sufficiently  high  grade  of  culture 
to  make  their  mark  in  the  world — that  of  an  original 
ancestral  abode,  beautiful,  happy,  and  remote,  a  Paradise. 
It  is  usually  imagined  as  a  great  mountain,  watered  by 
springs  which  become  rivers,  bearing  one  or  more  trees  of 
wonderful  properties  and  sacred  character,  and  is  considered 
as  the  principal  residence  of  the  gods.8 

Again  the  tree  is  commonly  associated  with  the  serpent. 
The  serpent  and  the  tree!  That  is  the  conjunction  we  find 
in  every  race  and  every  faith.  Indeed,  a  serpent  coiled  at 
the  root  of  a  tree  is  the  design  found  on  one  of  the  oldest 
Tyrian  medals.  They  are  united  on  the  cylinder  seals  of 
Babylon  and  in  the  story  of  the  fall  of  man  in  Genesis.9 

The  association  of  the  thought  of  the  world-tree  with 
the  cosmic  mountain  and  the  serpent  fixes  its  place  beyond 
question  in  the  trestled  sky  over  which  Odin  ruled.  He  was 
the  All-canopy.  His  queen,  enthroned  by  his  side  was  Frigy, 
the  loving  canopy  of  the  golden  age.  She,  like  all  the 
canopies  in  the  myths  of  other  lands,  was  the  mother  of  the 


"  The  Story  of  Chaldea,"  2d  ed.,  ch.  vi,  p.  274,  §9-10. 
8 "  The  inscriptions  tell  us  of  a  primitive  sacred  garden,  in  which 
there  was  a  tree  of  life.  This  tree  is  seen  frequently  on  the  seals  of 
prominent  personages  of  Babylon.  It  also  appears  among  the  Alabaster 
reliefs  found  on  the  wainscoting  of  the  royal  palaces.  Approach  to  it 
seems  to  have  been  limited  to  the  gods  or  to  distinguished  persons. 
Its  fruit  also  contained  qualities  capable  of  granting  and  maintaining 
life  perpetually."  Ira  Maurice  Price,  "The  Monuments  and  the  Old 
Testament,"  p.  88. 


366  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

mighty  gods.  Her  personified  being  moved  about  in  a  golden 
cart  drawn  by  two  cats  in  the  familiar  manner  common  to 
the  halo-boats  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Greece. 

Her  husband  sought  wisdom  from  Mimir,  and  though 
some  say  he  left  his  eye  in  pawn  in  her  well-hole  in  exchange 
for  his  enlightenment,  the  old  Eune-song  of  Saemund's  Edda 
makes  no  mention  of  the  sacrifice.  If  it  be»  true,  however, 
that  the  god  suffered  in  this  way,  the  meaning  to  be  attached 
to  the  occurrence  is  that  the  All-canopy  as  it  opened  at  the 
well  revealed  to  the  view  of  man  a  bright  star  which  it  was 
seen  the  All-father  or  canopy  could  never  again  recover. 

At  Mimir's  well,  in  the  cave-cloud-hole  of  the  shining 
north  the  true  sky  was  rendered  visible  by  the  lifting  of  the 
veil.  Here  the  Alfadur  (All-father)  took  a  great  draught  of 
the  water  of  revelation.  The  golden  age  was  passing  away, 
and  Thor  the  young  '  Thunderer,'  Odin's  son,  was  heard 
at  times.  This  thunder  never  disturbed  the  Eden  world,  so 
its  personified  introduction  shows  a  change  was  coming.  In 
the  fullest  sense,  Thor  was  the  sky  as  we  now  see  it,  both 
clear  and  stormy. 

Our  forefathers  saw  all  these  changes  coming,  and,  inas- 
much as  they  involved  the  home  of  their  gods,  they  felt  that 
the  denizens  of  the  great  canopy-deep  must  be  fearfully  con- 
cerned. Therefore  in  their  stories  of  the  events  everything 
partakes  of  this  coloring  and  they  say  when  Odin  returned 
from  Mimir's  well,  a  council  of  the  gods  was  called  to  con- 
sider their  impending  doom.  They  also  say  that  no  car 
could  carry  the  clear  sky,  Thor,  to  the  summit  of  Mount 
Asgard  to  this  council,  so  he  was  obliged  to  walk.  It  was 
also  decreed  that  he  should  not  walk  over  the  Bridge  Bifrost, 
the  *  bridge  of  trembling/  so  called.  The  other  gods,  how- 
ever, were  seen  to  float,  as  it  were,  to  Asgard  in  their  vapor- 
boats  or  shells.  These  were  the  hidden  sun,  the  hidden  moon 
and  stars.  But  the  clear  sky  had  to  walk  there  by  himself, 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  367 

and  furthermore  he  had  to  wade  through  streams  and  across 
rivers  in  the  silver  sky  sea.  This  is  the  record  of  the  Elder 
Edda: 

Kormt   and   Ormt, 
And  the   two   Kerlaugs; 
These  shall  Thor  wade 
Every  day, 

When  he  goes  to  judge 
Near  the  Ygdrasil  ash; 
For   the   Asa-bridge 
Burns   all   ablaze — 
The  holy  waters  roar."10 

These  rivers,  Kormt  and  Ormt  and  the  two  Kerlaugs, 
were  no  doubt  canopy  streams  which  crisscrossed  the  bridge. 
It  is  a  difficult  matter  to  represent  their  perspective,  espe- 
cially in  mythological  language.  Apparently  they  revolved 
not  only  in  a  lower  sphere,  but  also  in  -a  slightly  different 
plane,  hence  the  canopy  or  bridge  was  at  places  eclipsed  by 
them.  The  statement  that,  "  Asa-bridge  burns  all  ablaze  " 
shows  that  the  sky  was  becoming  ruddy  at  times,  indicating 
Ragnarok  was  indeed  at  hand. 

But  though  at  hand,  the  time  had  not  yet  fully  come,  so 
another  great  cloud-monster  spread  itself  on  the  plane  of  the 
sky,  which  was  spanned  by  the  Midgard  serpent,  and  people 
said  of  it,  "  The  giants  have  deprived  Thor  of  his  power,  they 
have  stolen  his  hammer."  This  was  said  because  the  Titan- 
clouds  obscured  the  clear-sky  from  their  upturned  gaze.  Thor 
now  went  out  against  the  invaders,  and  not  only  recovered 
M joiner,  as  the  hammer  was  called,  but  also  made  the  giant 
Thrym,  who  had  stolen  it,  pay  the  penalty  with  his  life. 

Thomas  Carlyle  says  in  substance  that  the  old  name  of 
the  giant  Thrym,  Hrym,  or  Rime  is  now  nearly  obsolete  in 
England,  but  that  it  is  still  used  in  Scotland  to  signify  hoar- 
frost. Rime  was  not  then,  as  now,  a  dead  chemical  thing, 
but  a  living  Jotun,  or  Devil;  the  monstrous  Jotun  Rime 
10 "  Grimner's  Lay,"  29. 


368  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

drove  home  his  horses  at  night,  sat  combing  their  manes — 
which  horses  were  Hail-clouds,  or  fleet  Frost- winds.11 

To  this  interpretation  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  the 
effect  of  the  Kime-cloud  canopy  was  to  produce  a  bitter  chill 
on  the  earth ;  this  frost  afterwards  came  to  bear  the  name  of 
the  giant  who  originally  produced  it. 

Another  one  of  the  frost  giants  was  named  Hymir.  His 
cows,  the  critics  say,  were  icebergs.  This  myth  has  an 
affinity  with  those  of  the  Hindus, — the  cow  Adumbla,  '  lick- 
ing the  rime  from  the  rocks/  has  the  hall-mark  of  being  a 
nature  myth  portraying  a  cloud-bull  licking  the  chill-black 
rime  producing  giant-invading  zonal  vapor  rocks.12  Hymir 
was  the  giant  of  the  canopy  sea,  and  a  great,  deep  place 
he  was.  In  order  to  brew  their  ale  the  gods  sent  Thor  to 
procure  from  him  his  famous  kettle,  '  Mile-deep.'  Snatch- 
ing it  from  the  giant,  he  placed  it  on  his  head,  and  immedi- 
ately the  true  sky  was  hidden. 

Naturally,  the  gods  were  thrown  into  great  consternation 
every  time  their  stronghold  was  assailed  by  the  giants,  or,  to 
state  it  more  scientifically,  every  time  their  domain  was 
obscured  from  the  sight  of  man  by  the  breaking  of  the  bonds 
of  the  zonal  vapor-belt.  It  was  said  at  such  times  that  the 
giants  were  making  war  on  the  gods.  The  populace  imag- 
ined their  gods  were  thrown  into  great  -consternation. 

At  one  of  these  times  Baldur,  the  shining  canopy  whom 
everybody  loved,  and  beneath  whose  greenhouse  roof  every- 
thing was  verdant  bright  and  beautiful,13  was  slain  by 

""Heroes  and  Hero-Worship." 

12  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  possess  attributes  akin  to  those  of  the 
Scandinavian  gods.  Kishma  destroying  the  serpent  reminds  us  of  Thor 
and  his  adventures  with  the  Midgard  serpent.  The  Thunder-god  is 
more  or  less  common  to  all  lands.  A  cylinder-seal  in  the  British 
Museum  (No.  89,589)  represents  the  good  Marduk,  armed  with  the 
thunderbolt,  standing  on  the  back  of  the  serpent-monster  Tiamat  and 
slaying  her. 

18  Baldur's  Hall  was  called  Breidablik,  '  Hall-of -broad-shining- 
splendor.* 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  369 

Hoder,14  the  blind  one,  to  wit,  darkness,  instigated  by  Loke, 
who  was  a  go-between,  a  spirit  akin  to  the  evil  hidden  in  the 
giant-canopy.15  Vali,  the  god  of  eternal  light,  brother  of 
Baldur,  slew  Hoder  and  avenged  his  brother's  death.  The 
old  conditions,  however,  were  gone,  therefore  Hermond 
was  sent  to  Hel  to  ask  his  return.  Hermond  went  forth 
as  Isis  in  Egypt  went  forth  in  search  of  her  husband, 
Osiris,  the  dead  sun-god.16  She  rode  on  Sleipner,  the  sun- 
horse,  and  passed  over  the  Gjallar  bridge  covered  with  glit- 
tering gold,17  which  spanned  the  Gjol  River  which  flowed  in 
Elivagar,  near  the  gate  of  the  horizon,  at  Hel's  abode.  She 
told  Hel  that  all  things  in  the  world  were  grieving  for  the 

"Hoder's  weapon  was  the  mistletoe.  The  Nemean  lion  which 
Hercules  slew  was  also  proof  against  the  weapons  of  this  earth.  As  he 
was  a  sun-hiding  canopy,  no  iron  could  pierce  his  side. 

15  Some  scholars  argue  that  Loke  is  to  be  identified  with  Pluto  of 
the  Greeks,  Siva  of  the  Hindus,  Ahriman,  the  evil  one  of  the  Persians, 
and  also  the  devil  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.     The  old  dragon  of  Kev.  xx :  1-2 
still  remains  with  us  unbound.     He  lives  throughout  this  age  in  myth, 
Rev.  xii:15.     When  the  gods  chased  Loke  to  punish  him  for  causing 
Baldur's  death,  like  Ea  of  Babylon  he  changed  himself  into  a  fish,  a 
salmon,  but,  notwithstanding  his  cunning,  he  was  captured  in  his  own 
gill-net — the  criss-cross,  vapor,  stringy,  fluid  sky.     It  is  interesting  to 
note  that,  like  all  the  evil  canopies,  Loke  was  originally  good.     Poor 
says  his  name  "  comes  from  the  word   lukos,  bright,  and  at  first  he 
meant  mild  warmth,  and  was  all  good.      ("Sanskrit  and  its  Kindred 
Literatures,"  p.  280.)     He  became  a  kind  of  fallen  angel. 

16  The  demon  Set,  or  Seb,  of  Egypt  comes  to  us  as  Surt  of  Scan- 
dinavia.    Baal,  the  canopy  fish-god  of  the  south,  is  the  Baldur  of  the 
north.     What  more  is  needed  to  prove  that  the  nature  marvels  of  the 
one  land  were  the  wonder  talk  of  the  other,  and  that  both  originated 
from  the  same  sky-scenes? 

"The  Gjallar  bridge,  like  Bifrost,  was  a  ring-belt  circulating  above 
the  atmosphere.  Owing  to  the  intervening  phenomena,  it  was  only 
visible  at  or  near  the  horizon,  where  it  caught  and  reflected  the  sun- 
light from  Surfs  domain.  Another  like  bridge  was  named  Mundilf are. 
In  no  other  place,  known  to  man,  than  in  the  sky,  can  inanimate  objects 
like  a  bridge  have  offspring.  It  is  stated  in  the  Younger  Edda  that 
Mundilf  are  had  two  children;  they  were  Maane,  the  moon,  and  Sol, 
the  sun.  Sol  married  Glener,  the  shining  one,  which  was  another  sun-lit 
sky-belt. 


370  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

absence  of  the  shining  canopy.18  All  things  indeed  were 
grieving,  but  the  great,  black  canopy  itself.  The  giantess 
(gygr),  supposed  to  be  no  other  than  Loke  Laufeyarson, 
refused.  Because  of  this  interception  of  light,  Baldur 
naturally  could  not  return. 

His  body  is  said  to  have  been  burned  in  the  Ringhorn 
ship.  How  could  language  be  more  precise  ?  Anderson  says : 
"  The  tops  of  the  mountains  are  the  masts  of  this  ship,  which 
is  round  (ring)  as  the  whirling  world."  19  The  gods  placed 
the  beloved  one's  body  on  this  ring-ship,  and  then  desired  to 
set  it  adrift,  but  it  was  so  large  that  they  were  unable  to 
move  it.  In  this  predicament  they  called  upon  a  certain 
giantess  named  Hyrroken  (the  smoking  fire),  who  came 
riding  on  a  wolf,  using  twisted  serpents  for  her  reins.  With 
a  single  push,  this  mighty  personification  shoved  the  ship 
forth.  The  ruddy  glow  of  reflected  light  from  its  under 
surface  was  that  of  the  appearance  of  fire.  Smoking  fire  was 
at  hand,  Ragnarok  the  end.20 

In  the  legends  of  the  Russians,  a  golden  ship  sails  across 
the  sea  of  heaven.  It  breaks  into  fragments,  and  none  are 
able  to  put  it  together  again.  The  custom  of  burning  the 
bodies  of  the  old  sea  kings  originated  as  a  memorial  of  this 
event.  Boyesen  has  put  it  in  song: 

In  the  prow  with  head  uplifted 

Stood  the  chief,  like  wrathful  Thor; 
Through   his   locks,   the   snow-flakes    drifted, 

Bleached  their  hue  from  gold  to  hoar, 
*  Mid  the  crash  of  mast  and   rafter 
Norsemen  leaped  through  death  with  laughter 

Up  through  WalhaPs  wide-flung  door. 


18  Weeping  for  Baldur  and  weeping  for  Tammuz  are  one  and  the 
same  thing.     Baldur's  body  was   placed   in  a   ship  and  burned.     The 
sky  opening  was  bloody-red.     A  survival  of  the  custom  is  found  in  the 
Chinese  day  of  weeping,  which  comes  in  mid-summer  and  is  called  the 
'dragon  boat  festival/     The  bewailing  of  Adonis  was  in  memory  of 
the  same  phenomenon. 

19  "  Norse  Mythology,"  6th  ed.,  p.  295.          20  Ibid.,  p.  287. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  371 

The  Marquis  de  Nadaillac  notes  how  the  practice  of 
cremation  suddenly  became  popular  with  our  ancestors,  but 
of  course  he  is  not  aware  of  the  cause.  The  Norsemen  saw 
their  gods  cremated  in  the  sky  and  in  this  way  learned  the 
lesson.  The  Marquis  says: 

"  About  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  Bronze  age,  or 
perhaps  even  earlier,  however,  a  remarkable  change  took 
place  in  the  ideas  of  man,  and  the  dead,  instead  of  being 
buried  intact,  were  consumed  by  fire  on  the  funeral  pile. 

"  What  can  have  been  the  origin  of  this  custom  ?  What 
race  first  practiced  it  ?  It  has  long  been  supposed  by  many 
archaeologists  that  it  was  the  Aryans  from  the  lofty  Hindu 
Koosh  Mountains,  who  first  introduced  into  Europe  a  civili- 
zation more  advanced  than  that  which  had  hitherto  obtained 
there,  and  taught  the  people  to  cremate  instead  of  bury 
their  dead.  This  theory  was  accepted  for  a  considerable  time 
without  question,  but  of  late  years  a  new  school,  headed  by 
Penka,  has  arisen,  who  claim  that  the  reformers  came  not 
from  the  East,  but  from  the  North.  The  Marquis  de  Saporta 
had  indeed  before  suggested  that  the  primitive  races  who 
were  the  contemporaries  of  the  mammoth  and  the  rhinoceros 
came  originally  from  the  polar  regions,  where  the  remains 
of  a  luxuriant  vegetation  prove  that  climatic  conditions  pre- 
vailed in  remote  times  of  a  very  different  character  to  those 
of  the  present  day."  21  . 

Skinblader  (Frey's  ship)  was  another  famous  canopy- 
arc.  In  it  the  gods  sailed  forth  to  the  final  conflict.  Naglfar, 
Loke's  ship,  was  even  larger  than  Ringhorn. 

Loke  was  the  father  of  the  Fenris-wolf,  of  the  Midgard- 
serpent,  and  of  Hel,  all  of  which  were  god-obscuring  canopy- 
forms.  Tyr  or  Tiu  22  gave  his  hand  to  the  wolf  as  a  pledge 

21 "  Prehistoric  Peoples,"  p.  366. 

22  The  etymology  of  the  name  Tiu  or  Zio  identifies  the  god  with 
the  old  Indo-European  sky-god  Dyaus,  Zeus,  Jupiter.  Max  Miiller, 
"Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,"  2d  series,  p.  425. 


372  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

while  the  other  gods  were  binding  him.  The  wolf  devoured 
it.  Swallowed  by  the  canopy,  the  god  was  said  to  have  lost 
his  hand.  But  the  binding  of  the  wolf  could  not  hold  the 
great  black  thing  forever  in  check.  At  the  last  day  he  broke 
loose  and  overspread  the  heavens,  devouring  the  sun  or  rather 
the  swift  sun,  the  canopy,  the  shining  glass  of  Job  xxxvii  :18. 
While  he  was  doing  this  his  brother  wolf  or  dog,  Moongarrn, 
as  he  is  called,  swallowed  the  moon.23 

By  this  time  it  will  be  seen  that  a  large  proportion  of  all 
the  myths  of  Scandinavia  portray  the  lower  canopy  or  giant 
forms  obscuring  or  devouring  the  zonal  belt-bridges  and  other 
possessions  and  structures  floating  above  the  true  atmosphere 
in  the  home  of  the  gods. 

One  of  these  forms,  like  the  Grecian  account  of  Phaeton 
driving  the  chariot  of  the  sun,  brought  great  heat  upon  the 
region  beneath.  Now,  the  goddess  Sif  presided  over  the 
destinies  of  the  earth,  and  when  her  grass  was  burnt  up, 
people  said,  "  Loke  has  burnt  her  hair,  he  has  changed  it  into 
golden  thread!"24 


23 "A  number  of  interpretations  of  Tyr's  struggle  with  Fenrir,  on 
the  basis  of  nature-myths,  have  been  proposed,"  says  De  La  Saussaye, 
"  but  none  of  these  is  at  all  satisfactory."  "  The  Religion  of  the 
Teutons,"  p.  247.  Satisfactory  explanations,  we  may  add,  follow  the 
understanding  of  nature. 

24  Perhaps  this  is  a  wrong  interpretation.  Jeremiah  Curtin  says : 
"  Hair  in  Indian  mythology,  as  in  other  mythologies,  is  the  equivalent 
of  rays  of  light  when  connected  with  the  sun  and  with  planet  lumi- 
naries." Then  he  gives  as  an  illustration  the  song  of  the  shirt  of  Waida 
Werris  (the  Polar  Star)  : 

The  circuit  of  earth  which  you  see, 

The  scattering  of  stars  in  the  sky  which  you  see, 

All  that  is  the  place  for  my  hair. 

"Creation  Myths  of  Primitive  America,"  p.  516.  This  view  seems 
more  in  harmony  with  the  legend  of  the  smithy  of  the  dwarfs,  where 
the  bright  golden  hair  of  Sif  was  made.  This  smithy  was  evidently 
a  sky  scene,  and  from  it  the  golden  streamers  of  glowing  hair  were 
seen  extending  into  the  skies. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  373 

The  end  of  the  old  conditions  was  close  at  hand,  and 
another  vapor-form  was  to  follow  which  would  produce  the 
opposite  effect.  The  picture  is  perfect;  Odin  stood  with 
bowed  head,  for  the  Twilight  of  the  Gods  was  now  imminent, 
and  prophesied  as  follows : 

"  The  great  Fimbul  winter  shall  come,  when  snow  shall 
fall  from  the  four  corners  of  heaven;  deadly  will  be  the 
frosts,  and  piercing  the  winds,  and  the  darkened  sun  will 
impart  no  gladness.  Three  such  winters  shall  come,  and  no 
summer  to  gladden  the  heart  with  sunshine.  Then  shall 
follow  more  winters,  when  even  greater  discord  shall  prevail. 
Fierce  wolves  shall  devour  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  stars 
shall  fall  from  heaven.  The  earth  shall  tremble,  the  stony 
hills  shall  be  dashed  together,  giants  shall  totter,  and  dwarfs 
groan  before  their  stony  doors.  Men  shall  seek  the  paths 
leading  to  the  realms  of  death;  and  earth,  in  flames,  shall 
sink  beneath  the  seething  ocean."  25 

Odin's  ring,  Draupner,  from  the  verb  meaning  ( to  drop/ 
for  the  reason  that  at  stated  periods  new  rings  dropped  from 
it,  echoes  this  prophecy;  each  time  a  ring  fell  from  it  a 
fearful  cold  ensued. 

Another  legend  fits  in  at  this  stage  and  advances  the 
scene  still  closer  to  the  time  of  the  end.  The  gods,  seeing 
that  their  days  were  limited,  engaged  a  certain  artificer  to 
build  for  them  a  residence  which  was  to  be  so  strong  that  all 
the  giants  could  not  hope  to  drive  them  from  its  refuge.  At 
Loke's  suggestion,  the  wages  they  agreed  to  give  the  workman 
in  consideration  of  the  building  being  finished  in  a  certain 
time  was  the  goddess,  Frey,  the  sun  and  the  moon.  The  gods 
looked  upon  the  whole  matter  as  a  joke,  for  they  felt  that  no 
workman  unaided  could  do  such  a  task  in  so  short  a  time, 
and  it  was  stipulated  that  this  strange  being  should  be  aided 
only  by  his  horse.  Great  was  the  consternation  of  the  gods 

25 Litchfield,  "The  Nine  Worlds/'  p.  153. 


374  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

when  they  found  their  joke  taking  a  serious  turn  and  they 
came  to  realize  that  the  edifice  would  be  finished  on  time. 
The  great  horse  was  doing  a  stupendous  amount  of  work,  so 
the  gods  turned  to  Loke,  the  cause  of  all  this  mischief,  and 
demanded  that  he  rectify  it.  Now,  one  of  the  features  of 
Loke  reminds  us  of  (Edipus,  the  slow-foot  of  Greek  myth- 
ology. The  physical  feature  connected  with  the  whole  story 
is  that  the  canopy  was  settling  down,  falling  and  obscuring 
the  sky.  Only  one  cure  would  answer:  faster  speed  was 
needed  to  whirl  the  canopy  up  higher  into  the  sky;  so  the 
legend  goes  on  to  say  that  Loke  changed  himself  into  a  mare 
and  incited  the  strong  workman's  horse  to  run  away.  The 
artificer,  seeing  that  he  could  not  npw  complete  his  task  in 
the  time  specified,  cast  off  his  veil  and  grew  in  size,  that  he 
might  finish  the  building  without  the  aid  of  his  horse ;  but 
this  revealed  his  true  character,  the  gods  saw  that  they  were 
dealing  with  a  mountain-giant  and  went  immediately  to  bat- 
tle with  him.  Thor  cracked  open  his  skull  with  his  hammer. 
The  clear  sky  did  this,  but  the  '  Twilight  of  the  gods '  was 
very  near. 

A  legend  of  the  clear  sky  tells  how  the  charming  Idun 
(blue-sky)  with  a  basket  of  golden  apples  (stars)  of  youth 
was  stolen  by  the  giants.  Summer  gladness  was  carried  off 
to  the  south,  and  the  sun  itself  shone  with  a  pale  sickly  light ; 
all  the  gods  began  to  grow  old  for  want  of  the  apples,  and 
the  time  at  hand  was  one  great  long  dark  night.  Loke  was 
sent  to  recover  the  fair  one,  but,  after  securing  her,  was 
chased  by  her  captor,  the  giant  Thjasse,  who  assumed  the 
form  of  an  eagle.  The  race  was  long  and  as  they  neared 
Asgard  it  looked  as  though  the  giant  would  overtake  the 
fugitives,  but  once  they  had  passed  safely  over  the  walls  of 
their  sky-home,  the  gods  lighted  chips;  the  eagle,  unable  to 
check  his  flight,  burned  his  wings  as  he  passed  over,  thus  he 
fell  dead  in  their  midst.  The  sun,  as  though  suddenly  grown 
young,  gleamed  out  in  the  radiance  of  his  beauty,  the  crape- 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  375 

ring  turned  into  gold,  and  Gladsheim  glittered  again  as  of 
old.  Idun,  with  her  apples  of  youth,  was  in  their  midst 
again. 

But  as  the  end  was  now  at  hand  the  conditions  above 
could  not  last.  Ragnarok,  or,  as  the  word  means,  the  dark- 
ness, the  death  of  the  gods,  was  now  inevitable.  The  wolf 
Fenri  burst  his  bonds  and  hurried  gaping  to  the  battle  scene, 
with  his  lower  jaw  scraping  the  quaking  earth,  and  his  nose 
pointed  high  into  the  sky. 

The  great  feature  of  the  heavens  now  was  its  ruddy  glow. 
The  world-tree  was  burning. 

Just  mark  the  tree  talks  of  mythology. 
The  world-ash   covered   all   this   earth   of  ours. 
Apollo,  the  true  sun,  chased  Daphne,  the 
Bright  lovely  nymph  across  the  arching  sky. 
He  cried  for  her  to  stay,  but  still  she  fled, 
And  when  he  caught  her  she  changed  to  a  tree. 
The  sun-beams  catching  in  the  vapors  spread 
And  made  an  arbor  of  a  tree-like  growth. 
The  golden  apples  were  the  little  stars, 
And  Hercules  procured  these  by  his  strength. 
The  sun-god  threw  the  canopy  to  earth 
And  thus  obtained  for  them  an  open  space. 

Another  tree  tale  in  the  south  we  find — 

Osiris,  the  Egyptian  sun-god  strong, 

Was  placed  within  a  chest,  and  then  was  thrown 

Into  the  current  of  the  sweeping  stream. 

The  chest  was  washed  ashore,  then  round  it  grew 

A  mighty  tree,  enclosing  in  itself 

The  coffin  of  the  god,  till  Isis  came 

With  thunder  and  with  lightning  to  the  spot. 

Then,  striking  the  great  column  with  her  wand, 

She  caused  a  split,  and  forth  the  coffin  came. 

She  seized  and  then  concealed  it  in  a  forest — 

The  sun  was  seen,  and  then  was  hid  again. 

And  Typhon,  the  fierce  monster,  split  it  up. 

In  India  another,  similar  tale  describes  a  great  tree  held 
up  by  the  Varuna-canopy.  In  the  case  of  this  tree  the  top 
was  down  and  the  roots  up.  "  The  Bright  one  was  born  of 


376  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

the  Dark  one."  Light  from  the  clouds,  it  seems,  the  sun- 
beams being  the  roots.  A  mighty  tree  was  this,  with  foliage 
queer ! 

The  ash  Ygdrasil  was  the  tree-of-life ;  under  its  spreading 
arches  the  golden  age  existed  physically  for  man.  But  he 
who  worshiped  the  creature,  to  wit,  the  tree  itself,  partook 
of  forbidden  fruit.  There  was  no  life  in  the  tree  except 
in  the  type.  He  who  saw  this  and  worshiped  God  in  spirit 
and  in  truth  found  in  the  tree  a  revelation,  hence  through  the 
creature,  or  creation,  he  was  led  to  the  Creator,  and  in  this 
way  the  tree  became  a  means  of  life,  spiritually. 

Ancient  tree  worship  was  the  perversion  of  God's  way. 
There  was  the  tree  which  stood  on  top  of  the  pyramid  (i.e., 
the  midnight  shadow  cone)  in  the  island — birthplace  (i.e.,  the 
cave-hole)  of  the  Aztec  race.  There  was  the  tree  referred  to 
in  the  Hindu  legends,  etc.,  etc.,  but  all  alike  are  perversions. 
The  three-pronged  trident  of  Poseidon  links  the  three  roots 
of  the  world-ash  to  the  water  world  of  the  overcast  vapor-sky. 

From  Babylon  and  Syria  the  story  is  the  same.  The 
sacred  tree  is  carved  on  many  a  stock  and  many  a  stone.  A 
cylinder  now  in  the  British  Museum  shows  the  fall  of  man ; 
a  tree,  a  serpent,  and  two  figures  reaching  for  forbidden 
fruit. 

The  Bible  is  thus  verified  again. 

Two  trees  are  spoken  of  in  Genesis; 

The  fruit  of  one  is  error  born  of  snakes — 

To  worship  the  belt-system,  and  not  God 

Is  what  has  been  done  since  the  Eden  times 

By  nearly  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

To  worship  the  true  tree  of  promise,  though 

(The  second  tree  which  Genesis  sets  forth) 

Is  God's  way  and  not  man's  way. 

Let  us  see, 

In  type,  He  set  before  our  infant  race 
The  things  of  truth  and  life,  but  not  of  death, 
He  showed  that  all  first  things  must  pass  away — • 
The  canopy  was  good  and  yet  it  proved 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  377 

To  infant  man  that  flesh  and  blood  brought  death. 

Yea,  first  things  had  to  perish  to  show  this — 

That  God  is  Spirit.     They  that  worship  Him 

Must  worship  in  the  spirit  and  in  truth.26 

But  our  first  parents  worshiped  what  they  saw, 

So  punishment  was  bound  to  follow  swift. 

The  canopy  was  rent  in  twain  to  prove 

It  was  the  creature,  not  the  Great  Creator. 

The  flaming  sword  burst  through  and  turned  each  way 

To  keep  the  tree  of  life,  to  show  the  truth,21 

On  down  the  ages  unto  us  poor  mortals. 

The  way  of  death  is  error's  first-born  light; 

The  way  of  life  is  spirit  and  is  truth. 

Yea,  light  as  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing 

If  little  of  it  at  a  time  be  seen. 

A  little  light  is  but  a  twilight  dim, 

And  those  who  venture  to  go  forth  by  it 

May  drop  into  a  pitfall  on  the  way. 

A  flood  of  light  the  whole  truth  makes  all  plain, 

And  those  who  wait  on  this  will  worship  Him. 

The  way  of  life  is  spirit  and  is  truth. 

In  Eden  when  the  canopy  was  whole 

The  evidence  was  not  yet  all  in  hand. 

Our  parents  worshiped  only  what  they  saw, 

So  God  in  judgment  sent  the  sword  to  throw 

More  light  upon  His  purpose  for  the  world, 

And  Halcyon  days  were  over  then  for  man. 

On  through  the  ages  new  conditions  stalked: 

First  ring,  then  canopy,  then  clear  sky  came. 

The  deluge  of  Deucalion  brought  down 

A  system — probably  the  last  of  all, 

And  never  was  the  earth  destroyed  again. 

"  In  the  Egyptian  history,  as  preserved  by  Plato,  the 
Deluge  of  Deucalion,  which  many  things  prove  to  have  been 
identical  with  the  Deluge  of  Noah,  was  the  last  of  a  series 
of  great  catastrophes. 

"  In  the  Celtic  legends  the  great  Deluge  of  Ogyges  pre- 
ceded the  last  deluge. 


26 John  iv:24.          "Gen.  Hi: 24. 


378  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

"  In  the  American  legends,  mankind  have  been  many 
times  destroyed  and  as  often  renewed."  28 

Philosophers  have  noted  these  facts  from  a  very  early 
date.  Thus,  according  to  the  Scriptural  theory  of  compara- 
tive mythology,  "  Deucalion  is  only  another  name  for  Noah, 
Hercules  for  Samson,  Arion  for  Jonah,  etc.  Sir  Walter 
Ealeigh,  in  his  History  of  the  World,  says,  '  Jubal,  Tubal, 
and  Tubal-Cain  were  Mercury,  Vulcan,  and  Apollo^  inven- 
tors of  Pasturage,  Smithing,  and  Music.  The  Dragon  which 
kept  the  golden  apples  was  the  serpent  that  beguiled  Eve. 
Mmrod's  tower  was  the  attempt  of  the  Giants  against 
Heaven.'  "  29 

All  those  who  have  followed  the  argument  as  set  forth  by 
the  hypothesis  under  consideration,  however,  see  that  a  new 
element  has  been  brought  into  the  field,  and  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  Scriptures  have  revealed  the  truth  (about 
nature's  working)  to  man  in  all  and  through  all  past  ages. 
The  perversion  of  the  type  has  ever  been  man's  error. 

After  this  long  digression  it  behooves  us  to  return  to  the 
matter  of  the  burning  of  the  world-ash.  The  furrowed  sky 
had  the  semblance  of  a  tree,  and  at  the  same  time  the  appear- 
ance which  connected  it  with  the  porcus-plowed  field  of  the 
Hercules  myth  and  with  Frey's  boar. 

"  In  the  legends  of  the  Hindus  we  read  of  the  fight  be- 
tween Kama,  the  sun-god  (Ea  was  the  Egyptian  god  of  the 
sun),  and  Havana,  a  giant  who,  accompanied  by  the  Raks- 
hasas,  or  demons,  made  terrible  times  in  the  ancient  land 
where  the  ancestors  of  the  Hindus  dwelt  at  that  period.  He 
carries  away  the  wife  of  Rama,  Sit  a ;  her  name  signifies  c  a 
furrow,'  and  seems  to  refer  to  agriculture,  and  an  agricultural 
race  inhabiting  the  furrowed  earth.  He  bears  her  struggling 
through  the  air.  Rama  and  his  allies  pursue  him.  The 


^Ignatius  Donnelly,  "  Ragnarok,"  p.  404. 
/'  Scott's  ed.,  p.  375. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  379 

monkey-god,  Hanuman,  helps  Kama ;  a  bridge  of  stone,  sixty 
miles  long,  is  built  across  the  deep  ocean  to  the  Island  of 
Lanka,  where  the  great  battle  is  fought:  i  The  stones  which 
crop  out  through  Southern  India  are  said  to  have  been 
dropped  by  the  monkey  builders !  '  The  army  crosses  on  the 
bridge,  as  the  forces  of  Muspelheim,  in  the  Norse  legends, 
inarched  over  the  bridge  '  Bifrost.' 

"  The  battle  is  a  terrible  one.  Havana  has  ten  heads,  and 
as  fast  as  Rama  cuts  off  one,  another  grows  in  its  place. 
Finally,  Rama,  like  Apollo,  fires  the  terrible  arrow  of 
Brahma,  the  creator,  and  the  monster  falls  dead.  *  *  * 

"  The  body  of  Havana  is  consumed  by  fire.  Sita,  the  fur- 
rowed earth  (sky),  goes  through  the  ordeal  of  fire,  and  comes 
out  of  it  purified  and  redeemed  from  all  taint  of  the  monster 
Havana;  and  Rama,  the  sun,  and  Sita,  the  earth  (sky),  are 
separated  for  fourteen  years;  Sita  is  hid  in  the  dark  jungle 
(canopy),  and  then  they  are  married  again,  and  live  happily 
together  ever  after. 

"  Here  we  have,"  says  Donnelly,  "  the  battle  in  the  air 
between  the  sun  and  the  demon  (canopy)  :  the  earth  is  taken 
possession  of  by  the  demon;  the  demon  is  finally  consumed 
by  fire  (the  ruddy  canopy),  and  perishes."  30 

This  rudy  glow  was  one  of  the  final  features  of  the  decline 
of  the  zonal-belt  system.  The  ancients  saw  the  skies  being 
consumed  and  thought  the  world  was  going  to  be  destroyed 
by  fire,  but  the  cataclysm  turned  out  to  be  of  a  watery  nature, 
as  the  following  accounts  show: 

"  Monan  (the  Maker,  the  Begetter),  without  beginning 
or  end,  author  of  all  that  is,  seeing  the  ingratitude  of  men, 
and  their  contempt  for  him  who  had  made  them  thus  joyous, 
withdrew  from  them,  and  sent  upon  them  iaia,  the  divine  fire, 
which  burned  all  that  was  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  He 
swept  about  the  fire  in  such  a  way  that  in  places  he  raised 


"Ragnarok,"  pp.  171,  172. 


380  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

mountains,  and  in  others  dug  valleys.  Of  all  men  one  alone, 
Irin  Mage  (the  one  who  sees),  was  saved,  whom  Monan  car- 
ried into  the  heaven.  He,  seeing  all  things-  destroyed,  spoke 
thus  to  Monan :  '  Wilt  thou  also  destroy  the  heavens  and 
their  garniture  ?  Alas !  henceforth  where  will  be  our  home  ? 
Why  should  I  live,  since  there  is  none  other  of  my  kind  ? ' 
Then  Moran  was1  so  filled  with  pity  that  he  poured  a  delug- 
ing rain  on  the  earth,  which  quenched  the  fire,  and,  flowing 
from  all  sides,  formed  the  ocean,  which  we  call  parana,  the 
great  waters."  31 

Bulfinch  says  that  Jupiter  summoned  the  gods  to  council. 
"  They  obeyed  the  call,  and  took  the  road  to  the  palace  of 
heaven.  The  road,  which  any  one  may  see  in  a  clear  night, 
stretches  across  the  face  of  the  sky,  and  is  called  the  Milky 
Way.  Along  the  road  stand  the  palaces  of  the  illustrious 
gods;  the  common  people  of  the  skies  live  apart,  on  either 
side.  Jupiter  addressed  the  assembly.  He  set  forth  the 
frightful  condition  of  things  on  the  earth,  and  closed  by 
announcing  his  intention  to  destroy  the  whole  of  its  inhabi- 
tants, and  provide  a  new  race,  unlike  the  first,  who  would 
be  more  worthy  of  life,  and  much  better  worshipers  of  the 
gods.  So  saying,  he  took  a  thunderbolt,  and  was  about  to 
launch  it  at  the  world,  and  destroy  it  by  burning ;  but,  recol- 
lecting the  danger  that  such  a  conflagration  might  set  heaven 
itself  on  fire,  he  changed  his  plan,  and  resolved  to  drown 
it."  32 

J.  W.  Eoster  gives  the  following  account  and  abridged 
remarks  on  the  Amerind  legends  bearing  on  the  last  great 
cataclysm :  "  Among  the  Indian  tribes  of  North  America, 
Catlin  found  the  tradition  of  such  a  cataclysm.  The  tribes 
further  south  relate  that  the  waters  were  seen  coming  in 
waves  like  mountains  from  the  east,  and  of  the  tens  of  thou- 


31  Brinton,  "  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  3d  ed.,  pp.  245-246. 
82 "The  Age  of  Fable,"  Scott's  ed.,  p.  24. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  381 

sands  who  ran  for  the  high  grounds  to  the  west,  according 
to  some  traditions,  one  man  only,  and  according  to  others, 
two,  and  still  according  to  others,  seven,  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing places  of  safety,  and  from  these  have  descended  the 
present  races  of  Indians. 

"  The  tribes  in  Central  America  and  Mexico,  in  Venez- 
uela, and  in  British  and  Dutch  Guiana,  distinctly  describe 
these  cataclysms — one  by  water,  one  by  fire,  and  the  third  by 
the  winds.  The  tribes  nearer  the  vicinity  of  the  terrible 
convulsions  were  cognizant  of  the  whole  effects  of  fire  and 
winds,  when  the  remote  tribes  were  sensible  only  of  the 
flood  of  waters  which  went  to  the  base  of  the  mountains. 

"  From  amidst  t  the  thunder  and  flames  that  came  out  of 
the  sea,'  whilst  '  mountains  were  sinking  and  rising/  the 
terror-stricken  inhabitants  sought  every  expedient  of  safety. 
Some  fled  to  the  mountains,  and  some  launched  their  rafts 
and  canoes  upon  the  turbulent  waters,  trusting  that  a  favor- 
able current  would  land  them  upon  a  hospitable  shore,  and 
thus  in  this  elemental  strife  this  ancient  civilized  people 
became  widely  dispersed. 

"  The  festival  of  ( Izcalli '  was  instituted  to  commemorate 
this  terrible  calamity,  in  which  '  princes  and  people  humbled 
themselves  before  the  Divinity  and  besought  Him  not  to 
renew  the  frightful  convulsions.' 

"  It  is  claimed  that  by  this  catastrophe  an  area  larger 
than  that  of  the  kingdom  of  France  became  engulfed,  includ- 
ing the  Lesser  Antilles,  the  extensive  banks  at  their  eastern 
base,  which  at  that  date  were  vast  and  fertile  plains;  the 
peninsulas  of  Yucatan  and  Guatamala,  went  down  the 
splendid  cities  of  Palenque  and  Uxmal,  and  others  whose 
sites  are  now  in  the  ocean  bed,  with  most  of  their  living  in- 
habitants; and  the  Continent  has  since  risen  sufficiently  to 
restore  many  of  these  ancient  sites.  *  *  * 

"  The  authority  of  Charles  Martins  is  appealed  to,  show- 


382  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

ing  that  '  hydrography,  geology,  and  botany  agree  in  teach- 
ing that  the  Azores,  the  Canaries,  and  Madeira,  are  the  re- 
mains of  a  great  continent  which  formerly  united  Europe 
to  North  America."  33 

Plato's  description  of  Atlantis,  as  received  by  Solon  from 
the  Egyptian  priests,  bears    repetition    again,    it    was    as' 
follows : 

"  There  was  an  island  situated  in  front  of  the  straits 
which  you  call  the  columns  of  Hercules;  the  island  was 
larger  than  Lybia  and  Asia  put  together,  and  was  the  way 
to  other  islands,  and  from  the  islands  you  might  pass 
through  the  whole  of  the  opposite  continent,  which  surrounds 
the  true  ocean." 

The  rupture  of  the  Midgard  serpent  caused  the  agita- 
tion in  the  mind  of  primitive  man  which  gave  rise  to  the 
wildly  exaggerated  reports  and  stories  of  the  above  catas- 
trophe. It  must  be  remembered  that,  after  all,  our  fore- 
fathers saw  only  the  remnants  of  the  mighty  annular  system 
which  had  been  the  time-maker  of  the  geological  ages.  The 
periods  of  cold  and  the  great  flood  of  Deucalion  were  only 
echoes  of  the  last  stages  of  the.  Ice  age,  or,  more  properly, 
"  ages." 

The  Midgard  serpent  girded  the  whole  earth,  and  it  is 
recorded  that  his  tail,  finding  no  other  place,  grew  down  his 
throat.  This  is  the  language  of  the  Younger  Edda: 

The  eagle  screams, 
And   with   pale  beak   tears   corpses. 
Mountains  dash  together, 
Heroes  go  the  way  of  Hel, 
And  heaven  is  rent  in  twain. 
All  men  abandon  their  homesteads 
When  the  warder  of  Midgard 
In  wrath  slays  the  serpent. 


83 "  The  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States  of  America,"  6th  ed., 
pp.  396-398.  Catlin,  "The  Lifted  and  Subsided  Rocks  of  America," 
London,  Triibner  &  Co.,  1870.  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  March,  1867. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  383 

The  sea  grows  dark, 

The  earth  sinks  into  the  sea, 

The  bright  stars 

From  heaven  vanish; 

Fire  rages, 

Heat  blazes, 

And  high  flames  play 

'Gainst  heaven  itself. 

The  Mexican  account  says: 

"  Quetzalcoatl,  the  Toltec  deity,  learning  that  his 
father  had  been  slain  by  the  cloud-snakes,  rose  upon  them 
and  rushed  into  their  temple  with  his  tigers.  He  slew 
many,  the  guiltiest  of  them  he  hewed  and  hacked,  and, 
throwing  red  pepper  on  their  wounds,  left  them  to  die.  This 
is  the  explanation  they  give  of  the  ruddy  and  crimson  hue 
of  the  clouds  in  the  eastern  sky.  *  *  *  "  And  his  funeral  pile 
is  on  top  of  Orizaba,  where,  overcome  at  length  by  his  ene- 
mies, he  lay  down  to  die.  Wrapped  in  the  flames,  his  body 
rose  up  to  heaven.  We  have  the  like  in  the  Greek  mythology 
in  the  tale  of  Herakles."  34 

The  skies  were  strangely  peopled  in  those  days 
With  gods,  and  goddesses,  and  giants  strong, 
With  heroes,  witches,  demigods,  and  dwarfs. 
Yea,  many  mortals  also  dwelt  on  high, 
For  after  death  Valkyries  brave  were  sent 
To  bring  the  warrior  chieftains  to  Valhalla, 
Where  Odin  kept  an  open  door  for  them. 

From  thence  deep  music  seemed  to  issue  forth — 

The  sound  of  all  its  tumult  Wagner  heard: 

The  clear  horn-call  of  many  waters  rang. 

A  mighty  hero  known  as  Siegfried  fell, 

And  Brunehild  seized  a  torch  and  lit  his  pyre. 

Then,  as  the  flames  rose  high,  she  jumped  upon, 

Her  horse's  back  and  raised  him  for  the  leap. 

O  Siegfried !  Siegfried !  "  rang  her  cry.    She  sprang 

Into  the  rising,  eating  flames,  which  flew 

And,  gaining  volume,  mounted  higher,  higher, 


84  Charles  De  B.  Mills,  "  The  Tree  of  Mythology,"  pp.  29-30. 


384  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

Unto  the  very  heavens,  to  the  clouds, 

That  naming  canopy,  all  ruddy  red, 

The  fiery  wall  between  the  earth  and  sky. 

'T  was  then  the  bright  ring  fell  back  to  the  earth. 

The  Maidens  of  the  Rhine  swam  to  the  shore 

And  caught  the  circlet  as  it  reached  its  home. 

The  faggots  of  the  world-ash  now  caught  fire 
Through  the  green  trellis  shot  the  crimson  rays, 
And  all  the  world  was  bathed  in  bloody  glow. 
Then  wildly,  still  more  wildly,  leaped  the  flames. 
Valhalla  was  surrounded  with  red  fire; 
It  could  no  longer  from  the  earth  be  seen — 
The  fearful  glow  and  smoke  filled  all  the  air. 

Lo!  the  last  twilight  of  the  gods  had  come — 
The  faggots  of  the  world-ash  flared  and  blazed, 
And  all  the  gods  came  rushing  to  the  war. 
The  earth  itself  was  frightened  and  did  shake. 
The  sea  above  flowed  from  its  basin  strong, 
And  the  firm  heavens  were  thus  torn  asunder 
And  many  men  did  perish  from  the  earth. 
The  eagles  of  the  air  fed  on  themselves, 
Their  quivering  bodies  being  yet  alive. 
The  great  wolf  Fenris  broke  his  bands  and  rushed. 
The  Midgard  serpent  rose  out  of  the  sea, 
And  Loke  burst  his  bonds  and  joined  the  giants. 
Then  all  rushed  to  the  war  against  the  gods. 

"  In  the  midst  of  this  clash  and  din  the  heavens  are  rent 
in  twain,  and  the  sons  of  Muspelheim  come  riding  through 
the  opening."  Muspelheim,  according  to  Anderson,  means 
e  the  day  of  judgment.'  So  that  this  passage  means  that  the 
heavens  are  split  open,  and  the  eanopy  falls,  or  appears  to 
fall,  to  earth.  Surt  rides  first,  and  before  him  and  after  him 
flames  burning  with  the  appearance  as  it  were  of  fire  lighten 
the  canopy.  Surt  is  the  personification  of  this  fire  feature 
of  canopy  decline.  He  is  the  same  as  the  destructive  god  of 
the  Egyptian  mythology,  Set,  or  Seb,  who  destroys  the  sun. 

The  gods  came  forth  across  the  Bifrost  bridge. 
Their  horses'  hoofs  made  clashing  din  and  noise 
As  they  rushed  o'er  the  bridge, — then  trembling. 


SCANDINAVIAN  MYTHS  385 

And  as  they  rushed  a  fearful  crash  rang  out. 
The  Bifrost  bridge  fell  under  them,  a  wreck. 
But  on  they  rode,  regarding  not  its  fall, 
To  meet  their  enemies  in  force  arrayed, 
The  followers  of  Hela  and  the  giants. 
And  all  this  time  the  faggots  blazed  away — 
O  fearful  was  the  bonfire  that  they  made! 

This  mighty  ash-tree  was  supposed  to  hold 
The  world-wide  universe  upon  its  limbs. 
So  now  in  terror  all  the  earth  beheld 
And  saw  it  burning — O  the  fearful  sight! 

The  gods  advanced,  great  Odin  led  them  on. 
Alone  he  rushed  against  the  Fenris  wolf, 
And,  rushing,  fell  a  victim  in  his  jaws. 
(The  canopy  in  falling  did  this  thing.) 
Then  afterwards  by  Odin's  son  he  fell. 
For  Vidar,  who  could  walk  upon  the  air, 
Survived  the  falling  vapor  thing,  of  course. 
Then  Thor  engaged  the  Midgard  serpent  vile, 
And  great  renown  was  his  for  killing  him; 
Yet  by  its  death,  he  killed  himself  also — 
The  venom  of  the  monster  caused  his  death." 

The  Frost  giants  fought,  and  Loke  met  his  fate 
By  Heimdall,  the  bright  rainbow  of  the  sky.88 

And  Heimdall  lived,  and  yet  he  died  because 

The  rainbow  dies  when  all  the  war  is  o'er. 

0  fearful  was  the  fighting  everywhere! 

'T  was  Surtur,  the  fire-giant,  threw  a  dart 

Which  killed  poor  Frey.    Some  say  that  he  did  start 

The  fire  which  burned  the  universal  tree. 

The  world-ash  has  returned  unto  its  source — 
The  doomsday  of  the  gods  like  smoke  is  gone, 
And  dissolution  of  the  well  known  facts 
Has  followed  in  the  thoughts  of  modern  man. 
Mythology,  however,  still  retains 
The  bone  and  substance  of  the  facts  entire, 


35  The  Age  of  Ice  put  an  end  to  thunder  storms. 

86  Heimdall  was  originally  the  keeper  of  the  bridge  Bifrost.  In  the 
new  order  of  things,  he  became  associated  with  the  rainbow,  the  only 
vapor  bridge  left  in  the  sky. 


386  THE  ZONAL-BELT  HYPOTHESIS 

As  has  been  shown  by  raking  up  the  dust 
Which  fiction  has  deposited  so  thick. 
But  all  this  web  can  never  hide  the  truth 
If  one  will  '  pick '  it  from  its  mother  lode. 

The  end  had  come: 

"  Finally  Tyr  spoke :  '  And  is  there  no  hope,  Odin  ?  Does 
all  end  in  darkness  ? '  At  these  words  Odin's  face  changed ; 
a  gleam  of  sunshine  seemed  to  fall  upon  it,  and  he  said :  i  I 
see  arise,  a  second  time,  earth  from  ocean,  beauteously  green. 
I  see  waterfalls  where  leap  the  fish,  and  eagles  flying  over 
the  hills.  I  see  Baldur  and  Hodur,  the  rulers  of  a  purer 
race  of  mortals, — mortals  who  have  long  served  Baldur  in 
the  lower  world, — and  near  them  Yidar  and  the  sons  of 
Thor.  They  meet  on  Ida's  plains,  and  call  to  memory  the 
mighty  deeds  of  the  old  gods,  and  their  ancient  lore.  They 
speak  of  the  serpent,  the  great  earth-encircler,  and  of  the 
deeds  of  Loke  and  of  Thor.  Unsown  shall  the  fields  bring 
forth,  and  all  evil  shall  be  done  away  with  when  Baldur  and 
Hodur  reign.' 

"  He  ceased,  while  his  gaze  seemed  penetrating  through 
the  misty  ages."  37 

"Litchfield,  "The  Nine  Worlds/'  p.  155. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 

- 


Abbot,  C.  C.,  128,  132 

Adhemar,  93,  99 

Afanasyeff,  279-280,  332-357 

Agassiz,  L.,  3,  60-61,  83,  100 

Amos,  173 

Ampelius,  Lucius,  202 

Anderson,  Rasmus  B.,  361,  363,  370,  384 

Andree,  165 

Andrews,  Dr.  E.,  128,  130 

Angot,  Alfred,  28 

Angstrom,  16 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  48-49 

Aristotle,  201,  236,  256,  302 

Arrhenius,  15 

Balboa,  Vasco  Nunez  de,  266 
Ball,  Sir  Robert,  101,  115,  116 
Bancroft,  George,  170,  190-191,  258,  267- 

270,  315-316,  318 
Barker,  George  F.,  21 
Barrande,  52 
Barrois,  M.  Chas.,  61 
Basil,  St.,  156 

Bean,  Dr.  Tarleton  H.,  54,  94 
Beche,  Sir.  H.  de  la,  55 
Bell,  Dr.  Robert,  131 
Bergaigne,  175 
Berosus,  167,  257 
Bertrand,  J.  L.  F.,  61 
Berzelius,  Baron  J.  J.,  14 
Blake,  John  F.,  209 
Blank,  Rev.  J.,  143,  274-275 
Bleek,  W.  H.  J.,  310 
Bonney,  T.  G.,  116 
Bourbourg,  Brasseur  de,  222-223 
Boyesen,  H.  H.,  370 
Bradbury,  Robert  H.,  65 
Brinton,  Daniel  G.,  135,  162-163,  245,  265, 

308,  309-310,  315,  317,  318-319,  328, 

364,  379-380 

Brugsch,  Dr.  H.  de,  162,  248 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  233-234 
Buckland,  Dr.  William,  55 
Budge,  E.  A.  Wallis,  220 
Biihler,  189 

Bulfinch,  Thomas,  225,  242,  287,  378,  380 
Byron,  Lord,  262-263 

Csesarius,  St.,  156 


Carlyle,  Thomas,  358-359,  367-368 

Carter,  R.  Kelso,  6,  69 

Gary,  Henry,  143-144,  255 

Catlin,  George,  380,  382 

Cayeux,  L.,  61 

Chamberlin,  T.  C.,  7,  13-14,  15,  18-19,  35, 

77,  85,  98,  99,  105-106,  108,  112,  118- 

119,  120,  125 

Champollion,  Jean  Francois,  226 
Chandler,  Dr.,  35 
Cicero,  156,  256 
Clerke,  Agnes  M.,  23,  29,  33,  35-36,  38,  39, 

41,  72,  232 
Coan,  123 

Collet,  John,  126-127 
Cooper,  257 
Cortez,  148 
Creech,  57 

Croll,  James,  93,  99,  101,  116,  124 
Curtin,  Jeremiah,  280-285,  320-328,  332- 

335,  337-338,  340,  343-348,  372 
Cuvier,  59         • 

Dana,  James  D.,  6,  24,  59,  66-67,  71,  75- 
76,  77-78,  99,  101,  109,  110,  112,  122 

Daniel,  173 

Dante,  304 

D'Anvers,  N.  (Nancy  Bell),  139 

Darwin,  Charles  R.,  53,  61,  100,  103,  124 

Darwin,  Erasmus,  147 

Darwin,  Prof.  G.  H.,  41 

Dastre,  A.,  60-62 

Dawson,  Sir  J.  W.,  47-48,  90-91,  157 

Delitzsch,  210 

Dellenbaugh,  Frederick  S.,  117-118,  133, 
134-137,  150 

De  Vries,  60,  63,  71,  89,  125 

Diaz,  Bernal,  148 

Dickeson,  Dr.,  244 

Dobbins,  Frank  S.,  251,  311,  360 

Donnelly,  Ignatius,  4-5,  46,  148-149,  151, 
239-240,  258,  264,  266,  267,  268,  289- 
290,  311-315,  317,  318,  378-379 

Dove,  Heinrich  Wilhelm,  26 

Duram,  239-240 

Edwards,  Amelia  B.,  139,  241,  247-248, 

251 
Elton,  272-273 

887 


388 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


Emerson,  B.  K.f  130-131 
Epictetus,  223,  308 
Euclid,  256 
Ezekiel,  169,  171,  173,  199 

Fairchild,  Herman  Le  Roy,  7-8,  21,  44-45 

Farrington,  Dr.  Oliver  C.,  33 

Fisher,  120 

Fiske,  A.  K.,  148 

Flammarion,  M.,  209 

Floegel,  28 

Foerste,  A.  F.,  78-79 

Fontenelle,  158-159 

Foster,  J.  W.,  137-138,  243-244,  245,  380- 

382 
Frere,  J.  H.,  143 

Gardner,  J.  Starkie,  5,  96 

Geikie,   Archibald,    17-18,   24-25,   84-87, 

89-90,  116,  120,  122-123 
Geikie,  James,  42-43,  87-88,  93-94,  101, 

109,  114-115,  138,  141 
Gilbert,  G.  K.,  129,  131 
Gratacap,  L.  R.,  62-63 
Gray,  Asa,  84,  95,  97,  104 
Grey,  Sir  George,  178-181 
Groneman,  32 
Gubernatis,  A.  de,  341 
Gudea,  203,  246 

Habakkuk,  158,  173 

Haggai,  173 

Hann,  16 

Hansew,  126 

Harrison,  Frederick,  155 

Hartung,  259 

Hayne,  46 

Heer,  Oswald,  5,  76  90,  96,  97 

Heilprin,  Angelo,  52,  53,  140 

Heraclitus,  237 

Herodotus,  144,  203,  255,  302 

Hesiod,  143-144,  231,  255,  256,  274,  275, 

288,  307,  326 
Hilprecht,  Herman  V.,  45-46,   145,   196, 

209,  245 
Homer,  201,  224,  231,  233-234,  254,  255, 

280,  306,  307 
Hooker,  Sir  J.,  97,  115 
Hopkins,    Edward    Washburn,    174-175. 

176,  177,  186-187,  193-194,  255 
Howe,  Herbert  A.,  36 
Humphrey,  132 
Huygens,  Christian,  33 
Hyginus,  202,  229 

Ideler,  236 

Isaiah,  151,  156,  158,  172,  173,  198,  200, 
357 


James,  St.,  159,  236 

James,  George  Wharton,  328-331 

Jamieson,  T.  F.,  94,  120 

Jastrow,   Morris,   Jr.,   164,   196,   197-198, 

203,  205,  209,  210,  211,  212,  214,  215- 

218,  264 
Jensen,  246 

Jeremiah,  156,  158,  172,  173 
Job,  20,  145-146,  151,  153,  157,  159,  163, 

172,  173,  198,  208,  225,  242,  263,  372 
Joel,  173 

John,  St.,  159,  172,  173,  377 
Johns,  C.  H.  W.,  205 
Josephus,  201 
Joshua,  158,  173,  235 

Kant,  Emanuel,  4,  6,  38 

Keeler,  James  E.,  36,  37,  232 

Kemp,  James  Furman,  17 

Kepler,  Johann,  30 

King,  L.  W.,  200-202,  205,  206,  207 

Kotzebue,  Otto  von,  54 

Kuhn,  Adalbert,  259 

Kuntze,  97 

Lakes,  Arthur,  76-79 

Lamarck,  63,  65 

Lang,  Andrew,  168 

Langley,  S.  P.,  21,  72 

Lanoye,  F.  De.,  132,  162,  226,  250 

Lapham,  149 

Laplace,  38 

Lartet,  77 

Le  Conte,  Joseph,  17,  20-21,  43,  60,  68,  81, 

102,  122,  129 
Lemstrom,  Prof.,  91-92 
Lenormant,  5,  364 
Lesser,  Isaac,  208 
Lewis,  Carville  H.,  125 
Litchfield,  373,  386 
Lockyer,  J.  Norman,  248 
Logan,  Sir  William,  131 
Lucas,  Frederick  A.,  62 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  21-22,  46,  48,  54-55, 

60,  101,  104-105,  124 

Mackintosh,  D.,  131 

Macrobius,  308 

Manilius,  202 

Manson,  Marsden,  7,  51,  97 

Martins,  Charles,  381 

Maspero,  G.,  227,  241,  247-248,  251 

Massey,  238 

Matthew,  Dr.  W.  D.,  99 

Maurice,  147,  194-195 

Metz,  128 

Meunier,  M.  Stanislas,  25-26 

Miller,  Hugh,  56-58 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


Mills,  Charles  De  B.,  151,  178-181,  185- 
186,  213,  234-235,  252-253,  257,  281, 
283,  286,  316,  318,  383 

Milton,  153 

Moore,  Thomas,  212 

Moses,  172,  216 

MOller,  Max,  168-169,  182,  183,  186,  230- 
231,  255,  259,  371 

Murray,  Alexander  S.,  185,  259,  287 

Nadaillac,  Marquis  De,  139,  371 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  224,  237 
Nolan,  James,  41 
Nordenskjold,  5,  28,  54,  96 

Origen,  156 
Orton,  James,  97 

Ovid,  228-229,  235,  242,  265,  272-273, 
276 

Paley,  F.  A.,  256 

Pearson,  H.  W.,  92-93,  117 

Penck,  117 

Penka,  371 

Peter,  St.,  156,  165,  173 

Phene",  John  S.,  148 

Pherekydes,  280-281,  364 

Pierret,  248 

Pindar,  242,  254 

Plato,  219,  229,  297-307,  377,  382 

Plutarch,  302 

Poor,  L.  E.,  147,  153,  250,  264,  291-296, 

335,  369 

Powell,  Major  J.  W.,  118 
Powers,  270 
Pozzi,  G.,  119 
Preller,  302 
Prescott,  William  H.,  191,  192-193,  242- 

243 
Prestwich,  Joseph,  46,  47,  125,  141,  165- 

166 

Price,  Ira  Maurice,  365 
Proclus,  237 

Procter,  Bryan  Waller,  278 
Ptolemaeus,  Claudius,  169,  256 
Purchase,  357 
Pythias,  258 

Ragozin,   Ze'naide  A.,  175-176,  177,  185, 

200,  203,  213,  364-365 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  378 
Ralston,  W.  R.  S.,  279-280,  341-342,  348- 

356 

Ramsay,  Sir  Andrew,  80 
Rassam,  144 
Rawlinson,    George,    159,    167,    220-222, 

225-226 

43 


Rice,  William  North,  81 
Richardson,  315 
Richtofen,  18 
Rogers,  80 
Roscoe,  H.  E.,  14-15 
Ruskin,  John,  257,  262 
Russell,  Israel  C.,  112,  131 
Rutherford,  E.,  52 

Sachs,  65 

Salisbury,  Rollin  D.,  15,  18-19,  35,  77,  85, 

98,  99,  105-106,  108,  110-111,  112,  118- 

119,  120,  121-122,  132 
Sanchoniathon,  257 
Saporta,  Marquis  de,  99,  371 
Sardeson,  P.  W.,  51 
Saussaye,  De  La,  372 
Sayce,  A.  H.,  140,  198,  199-200,  211,  259 
Schardt,  85 
Schloesing,  14 
Schorlemmer,  C.,  14-15 
Schroder,  255 
Schuchert,  Charles,  99 
Schwartz,  Ernest  H.  L.,  79-80 
Scipio,  308 

Scott,  Rev.  J.  L.,  225,  242,  287,  378,  380 
Scribner,  G.  Hilton,  5,  97 
Scrope,  122 
Seeley,  H.  G.,  70 
Seneca,  256 
Shakespeare,  143 
Shaler,  N.  S.,  78-79,  106,  120 
Smith,  Angus,  15 
Smyth,  Piazza,  241 
Socrates,  301 
Solon,  219,  229,  382 
Spencer,  Herbert,  65 
Standfuss,  Dr.  Max,  74 
Stedman,  Edmund  Clarence,  254 
Stewart,  J.  A.,  297-307 
Stokes,  Frank  Wilbert,  27,  29 
Suess,  E.,  60 

Taylor,  Canon,  295 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  174 

Theognis,  143 

Theopompos,  302 

Tiele,  259,  310 

Tomlinson,  A.  B.,  244 

Tylor,  222-223,  264,  280,  315 

Tyndall,  John,  12-13,  19,  26-27,  72,  102 

Upham,  Warren,  127-128,  129,  130-132, 
133 

Vail,  Prof.  Isaac  N.,  6,  7 
Very,  16 


390 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


Vezian,  A,  85 
Virgil,  57 

Wagner,  383 

Wallace,  96,  97 

Waltershausen,  Sartorius  von,  123 

Warren,  William  F,,  5,  96,  97,  188,  201- 

202,  229-230,  236-237,  310 
White,  Dr.  Charles  A.,  62 
White,  I.  C.,  126,  127 


Winchell,  Alexander,  80-81,  82,  111-112, 

141-142 

Winchell,  N.  H.,  129,  130 
Woodwbrth,  J.  B.,  78-79,  129 
Wright,  G.  Frederick,  6,  44,  48,  81-82,  84, 

94-96,  100,  101,  106-107,  109,  112,  114, 

119-120,   126-127,    128-129,    130,   137, 

138,  141,  166-167 

Zechariah,  173 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Abou  Mohammed,  151 

Absorption,  atmospheric,  21-22,  53,  63, 
72,  98 

Achilles,  234,  282,  292,  293 

Actinic  rays,  72,  161-162 

Acvins,  146,  177,  187,  198 

Adad   196 

Adamite  Race,  5,  137,  161,  166 

Admeta,  288,  289 

Adonis,  153,  221,  317,  370 

Adrastea,  259 

Adumbla,  368 

^Esir,  359,  361,  363 

African  myths,  165,  310,  316 

Af  rites,  151 

Age  of  darkness,  151,  154,  178-181,  183, 
190,  191,  257,  313 

Agni,  Agny,  174,  175,  176,  249,  250,  255, 
256 

Ahi,  185 

Ahriman,  141,  328,  369 

Ahura-Mazda,  141 

Akhu,  238 

Alcmene,  277 

Algonkin  age,  80 

Algonkin  myths,  234-235,  267,  280,  309, 
316,  318,  319,  327 

Alphesu,  260 

Alternating  seasons,  50-51,  97-98,  103 

Amalthea,  259 

Amazons,  288 

Amenti,  226 

Amerinds,  134-136 

Amerind  myths,  149,  150,  151,  154,  162- 
163,  168,  170,  174,  190  ff.,  196,  222-223, 
227-228,  231,  234-235,  240,  243  ff., 
249,  258,  264  ff.,  281  ff.,  308-331,  364, 
372,  376,  378,  379-382,  383 

Ammon-Ra,  220-221 

Anamorphic  zone,  sympathetic  earth 
movements,  42,  75,  122-123 

Ananta,  150,  189 

Anastasia  the  Fair,  350 

Ancient  astronomical  knowledge,  see  As- 
tronomical knowledge. 

Annihilation  of  the  gods,  223,  308 

Annular  systems,  30  ff.,  38,  40,  42,  69 

Annular  theory,  6 

Antigone,  233 


Ami,  200,  206,  207,  210,  211,  212,  216, 

246,  255 
Anubis,  225 
Anunnaki,  217 
Apapi,  248,  251 
Ap-en-to,  238 
Aphrodite,  249 
Apocatequil,  317 
Apollo,  231,  254,  255,  261,  262,  265,  271, 

272,  276,  375,  378,  379 
Apophis,  148,  225,  226,  227 
Apples,   see  Golden  and  Star-eyes,    146, 

242,  289-291,  348 
Apsu,  200,  201,  204,  211 
Arabian  tales,  151,  172,  264 
Archaeology,  12,  19,  45-46,  132-142,  148, 

155,  371 
Archaeozoic,  45 
Archean,  80 
Argo,  280,  291 
Argonauts,  291 
Ariadne,  273 
Ariconte,  153 
Arid  regions,  98,  140 
Arion,  378 
Arthur,  283,  294  ff. 
Artemis,  see  Diana,  271 
Aryan  myths,    141,    144,    168,    169,    174, 

185-186,  219,  371 
Asa-bridge,  367 
Asaheim,  see  Asgard,  363 
Asgard,  264,  359,  361,  366,  374 
Ashur,  219 
Assyrian  myths,  171,  196-218,  231,  242- 

243,  317 
Astral  aeon,  6 

Astronomical  hypothesis,  101  ff. 
Astronomical    knowledge,    ancient,    143- 

144,  147,  170,  182,  208-210,  223,  241, 

256  ff.,  272 

Asura,  175,  176,  187,  250 
Asva,  186,  230 
Ataguja,  317 
Aten,  220,  221 

Athene,  261,  262,  271,  274,  275 
Atlantis,  237,  263,  302,  382 
Atlas,  146,  147,  237,  260,  290 
Atmospheric  blanket,  7,  11,  12,  20  ff.,  51, 

70-71,  98 

391 


892 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Atmospheric  hypothesis,  101  ff. 

Atua,  238 

Augeus,  288 

Aurora,  the  goddess,  260 

Aurora  Polaris,  22,  27  ff.,  32,  91-92 

Australian  myths,  165,  310,  326 

Avatar,  189,  193,  194-195,  196,  211.  247, 

287 

Axial-rotation,  35-38,  39 
Azoic,  61 
Aztecs,   150,   151,  191  ff.,  267,  280,  308, 

309,  314,  319,  376 

Baal,  169,  369 

Baal-peor,  169 

Baba  Yaga,  351  ff. 

Babel,  167-169,  173,  176,  239  ff. 

Babylonian  myths,  164,  167, 182-183, 185- 

186,  193,   196-218,    239,    242-243,  245 

ff.,   257,  277,  284,  285,  289-290,  365, 

366,  368,  369,  376 
Bacchus,  357 
Bal,  185 

Balder,  234,  292,  359,  368,  369,  370,  386 
Barbarossa,  Frederick,  294 
Basutos,  316 
Bau,  203 
Behemoth,  152 
Bel,  169,  197,  198,  202,  204  205,  206,  207, 

209,  210,  211,  216,  217,  257,  278 
Bel-Dagon,  277 
Bel's  sanctuary,  45-46 
Belit,  197 

Bellerophon,  274-275 
Beowulf,  153,  185,  281,  283 
Bes,  227 

Biela's  comet,  23 
Bifrost-bridge,    264,    359-360,    361,    366, 

369,  379,  384,  385 
Big-headed  animals,  67  ff. 
Biological  crisis,  see  Suddenness,  63 
Bird  (sun),  see  Winged  sun,  174 
Birth  of  the  Myths,  4  ff.,  12,  19,  358-359 
Boar,  152,  194-195,  287  ff.,  336,  342,  361, 

378 
Boat,  see  Halo-boat  and  egg,  222,  224- 

225,  226,  249-250,  251  ff.,  273 
Book  of  the  Dead,  223  ff.,  237-238,  247 
Brage,  290 

Brahma,  141,  187-188,  194,  276,  368,  379 
Briareus,  152 
Bronze  age,  47,  138 
Brooks's  comet,  35 
Brunehild,  383 
Bull,  see  Cows,  170,  210,  212,  273,  288, 

355,  368 
Buoyant  atmosphere,  see  Density,  69-70 


|    Buried  organic  matter,  126-127 
Burning  canopy,  see  Conflagration,  Olel- 

bis,  and  Ragnarok,  280  ff. 
Bushmen,  310 

Butterfly  experiments,  73-74 
Buyan,  see  Egg-land,  341 

Cacus,  234,  270 

Cadmus,  153 

Caf,  Mount,  196 

Calypso,  170,  316 

Camaxtli,  150 

Cambrian,  52,  61,  77,  80,  98,  119 

Canaanite  myths,  227 

Canopus,  143 

Capitoline,  153 

Carbonaceous  meteorites,  34 

Carbon-dioxide  blanket,  12,  15  ff.,  21,  34 

Carbon  dioxide  in  atmosphere,  13-14,  72, 

74,  98,  102,  113,  267 
Carbon  dioxide,  limitations  for  life,  14-15, 

74 
Carboniferous  age,  14,  44,  45,  52,  62,  69, 

71,  75,  76,  77,  78,  79,  80,  81,  84, 116,  117 
Catastrophic  changes,  46,  48,  50,  53,  54, 

56,  59  ff.,  Ill,  166,  299,  379  ff. 
Caucasian  race,  5,  137,  166 
Cave,  see  Egg-land 
Celestial  bridge,  361 
Celestial  vault,  230 
Celtic  legends,  377 
Cenozoic,  59,  98 
Centaurs,  287 
Centrifugal  force,  16,  23,  29,  34,  103,  214, 

232,  324 

Cerberus,  275,  285,  290 
Cesha,  188-189 
Chaldean,  see  Babylonian 
Champlain  period,  77 
Chaos,  154,  204,  250,  257,  258 
Chape  wee,  Chakabech,  312-313 
Chariots,  158,  182,  186,  204,  211,  219,  228- 

232,  304  ff. 
Charon,  264 
Cheops,  158,  241  ff. 

Cherubim,  see  Good  cherub,  170-171,  173 
Chimaera,  152,  274,  275,  285 
Chinese  myths,  165,  182,  209,  268,  370 
Choctaw,  168,  264,  265 
Chudo,  351,  356 
Clam-shell  canopy,  258,  313 
Climate,  solar,  50-51,  97-98,  103 
Climate,  vagaries,  5,  13,  49,  53,  63,  75  ff., 

89  ff.,  103,  109-110,  119 
Cloud-mountain,  see  Mountain,  151,  196, 

210,  213,  223,  236,  245,  260,  264,  289, 

302 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


393 


Cloud-snakes'  mountain,  150,  383 
Complex  organisms,  66 
Concentric  zones,  246  ff.,  256  ff. 
Conflagration  of  heaven,  see  Olelbis  and 

Ragnarok,  219,  230,  319-325,  326,  351, 

365,  367,  370,  375,  379  ff. 
Confusion  of  tongues,  167-169,  249,  313 
Conglomerates,  44,  45,  78,  79,  80,  85,  86, 

116 

Connecticut  River  flood,  109 
Controversy,  astronomers  and  physicists 

with  geologists,  42 

Controversy  of  geologists  and  mathema- 
ticians, 11 
Copper  bridge,  343 
Copper  ring,  339 
Cosmos,  299-300 
Cows,  cattle,  see  Bull,  152,  162,  176,  177, 

184,  185,  211,  217,  222,  249,  261,  270 
Coxcox,  192  ff. 
Coyoteros,  315 
Crab,  286 

Creation  epic,  Babylonian,  204  ff. 
Cremation,  370-371 
Cretaceous,  53,  59,  67,  71,  76,  85,  91,  99, 

125 

Critias,  302 

Cronus,  167,  250,  258  ff.,  299  ff. 
Crow,  see  Ka,  261 
Curetes,  259 
Cybele,  260,  278 
Cyclonic  areas,  14,  20,  102,  105,  107-108, 

112-114 
Cyclops,  289 

Dadhikravan,  186,  230 

Daedalus,  272 

Demons,  286,  291,  305  ff.,  369,  378-379 

Dahish   153 

Danae,  255,  277   286 

Danish  myths,  293-294 

Daphne,  255,  375 

Darkling,  154,  317 

Dark  world,  151,  154,  178-181,  183,  190- 

191,  225,  257-258,  268,  310,  315,  373, 

375 

Date,  withdrawal  of  ice,  125  ff. 
Day,  Biblical,  156,  157  ff. 
Day,  Joshua's,  158,  173,  235 
Deathless  One,  see  Koshche*i 
Declination  of  the  heavens,  219,  230,  359 
Deer,  152,  154 
Delos,  Isle  of,  263,  265,  271 
Delphic  oracle,  231-232,  259,  272 
Deltas,  132 

Deluge,  see  Noachian  and  Deucalion 
Deluge  of  Ogyges,  287,  377 


Density  of  atmosphere,  53,  63,  65-69 
Descent  of  man,  136-137 
Desiccation,  98,  118-119,  159 
Deucalion  deluge,  165,  219,  230,  287,  377, 

378  382 

Deva  Surya,  141,  186 
Development  of  the  races,  136-137 
Devonian,  50,  52,  61,  63,  71,  80,  85 
Dew,  159,  173 
Diana,  271,  276,  287 
Dibbarra,  217 
Dicktain  cave,  265 
Dimiriat,  153 
Dinosaurs,  67  ff.,  71,  73 
Diomedes,  288 

Disagreement  amongst  physicists,  16 
Disintegration,  126-127 
Disk-worship,  219  ff. 
Distribution  of  species,  see  Migration,  52 

ff.,  89  ff.,  140 

Doctrine  of  isostasy,  see  Weight  of  ice 
Doctrine  of  uniformity,  46,  54,  60,  66,  105, 

124 

Dog  of  hell,  152,  275 
Dog  Rib  Indians,  312 
Dokos,  321 

Dome  of  Heaven,  200-202 
Doomsday,  see  Ragnarok,  264,  267,  385 
Dragon,  146,  151-152,  153,  175,  185,  204, 

205,  213,  234,  237,  274,  275,  285,  290, 

328,  336,  339,  342,  355,  369,  370,  378 
Dragon-fly,  356 
Dragons  of  the  air,  70-71 
Draupner,  373 
Druids,  277,  294 
Drunkenness,  Noah's,  161-162 
"  Dumb  fluter, "  315 
Dust-clouds,  17  ff.,  24  ff. 
Dust,  ferruginous,  29,  32,  33 
Dust,  inter-planetary,  34-35,  45,  50 
Dust,  meteoric,  32,  47 
Dust,  planetesimal,  32,  47,  71,  360 
Du-Zu,  317 
Dwarfs,  372,  383 
Dyaus,  see  Zeus,  144,  175,  177,  184,  254- 

255,  371 

Ea,  196,  200,  203,  206,  207,  210,  211,  214, 

215,  247,  261,  276,  278,  284,  326,  369 
Eagle,  171,  290,  350,  374,  382,  384 
Early  record  of  solar  and  stellar  phenom- 
ena, 143-144,   147,  170,   183,  208-210, 
223,  241,  256  ff.,  272 
Echidna,  232,  274,  275,  285 
Echo,  144,  169,  195,  208,  222,  307 
Eden-like  conditions,  see  Greenhouse,  142, 
147,  160,  161,  162,  170,  171,  172,  201, 
366,  377 


394 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Egg,  see  Halo-boat,  149,  174,  202,  248- 

249,  310,  317,  340  ff. 
Egg-land,  169,    170,   241  ff.,  250,  263  ff., 

272,  289,  297,  315,  322,  339,  363,  366, 
376 

Egyptian  myths,  143,  144,  145,  148,  149, 
162,  165,  176,  182,  185,  187,  196,  203, 
213,  219-253,  255,  256,  260,  263,  265, 

273,  276,  277,  308,  310,  314,  318,  357, 
366,  369,  375,  377,  378,  382 

El,  250 

Electric  expulsion,  23 

Electric  stimulus,  91-92 

Electryon,  277 

Elivagar,  369 

Elliptical  systems,  29,  38 

Elysian  Plain,  242 

Enceladus,  152 

Environment,  see  Mutation,  63,  65  ff.,  73- 

74,  136 

Eocene,  85,  89,  92,  93 
Eocene  continent,  5,  92,  96 
Eos,  260 

Epeirogenic  theory,  101 
Epic  of  Gilgamesh,  211  ff. 
Epigene  agencies,  45 
Er,  Myth  of,  298  ff. 
Erebus,  257 
Eros,  253,  307 
Erymanthus,  361 
Eskers,  130 
Eskimo,  133,  168,  312 
Etana,  Legend  of,  201 
Eurystheus,  278,  280  ff.,  287  ff.,  337 
Evolution,  see  Mutation,  52,  60,  61  ff.,  63, 

89  ff.,  124 

Evolution  of  man,  136-137 
Exogens,  50-51,  98 

Explosions  of  life,  see  Suddenness,  61,  62 
Extermination  of  species,  48,  52,  54-58,  71 

Fafnir,  185 

Falcon,  350,  354-355 

Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  129  ff. 

Fates,  296 

Fedor,  350 

Fenris-wolf,  152,  313,  371,  372,  373,  375, 

384,  385 

Fimbul-winter,  373 
Finn  cosmology,  256,  280,  281 
Fire  ring,   152,   174,   175,   185,   301,  255, 

256,  297,  298,  303,  363 
Fire  worship,  174,  176 
Firmament  of  water,  4,  7,  16,  19,  23-24, 

30,  37,  97-98,  111,  143,  145,  146,  156, 

157,  158,  173,  177,  200,  205,  206,  249, 

321 


Flaming  sword,  163,  170,  173,  282  ff.,  295- 

297,  336,  345,  377 
Floating  Bridge,  360 
Floating  Region,  360 
Flood,  see  Noachian,  Deucalion,  and 

Deluge  of  Ogyges,  192  ff.,  230 
Fortunate  Fields,  242 
Four  ages,  190  ff.,  309 
Four  rivers,  188,  201,  299,  309,  367 
Freshness  of  glaciated  surfaces,  125 
Frey,  361,  371,  373,  378,  385 
Frigy,  365 

Frog  monster,  149,  150,  152 
Furies,  296 

Gaea,  259 

Gallinomeros,  269 

Ganesha,  251 

Gaps  in  the  biological  record,  53,  59-60, 

62-63,  66,  67,  70-71 
Garden  of  Hesperides,  146 
Geological  ages,  11,  35,  39,  41,  49  ff.,  52, 

67,  108,  382 

German  legends,  250,  294,  314 
Geryon,  234,  242,  270,  274,  289 
Giants,  see  Titans,  260  ff.,  265,  290,  293, 

307,  341,  348,  362,  367,  368,  369,  370, 

372,  373,  374,  378,  383,  384,  385 
Gigantic  life,  67-71 
Gilgamesh,  164,  211  ff.,  215  ff.,  289 
Gimle,  363 
Gisl,  361 

Gjallar  bridge,  369 
Glacial  centres,  see  Cyclonic  areas,   108, 

165 
Glaciation  in  remote  ages,  78  ff.,  98-100, 

117,  120 
Glad,  361 
Gladsheim,  375 
Glaive  of  light,  283 
Glener,  369 
Gler,  361 

Gods  annihilated,  223,  308 
Golden  age,   151,   189,   192,  259,  299  ff., 

307,  321,  322,  359,  365,  366 
Golden  apples,  289,  339,  365,  374,  375,  378 
Golden  bridge,  336,  343 
Golden  car,  187 
Golden  fleece,  291 
Golden  germ,  174 
Golden  ring,  339 
Goldtop,  361 
Gondwana  Land,  99 

Good  cherub,  171,  173,  199,  227,  243,  369 
Goose,  brooding,  310 
Gorgian  Myth,  304 
Gorgons,  285,  351 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


395 


Gowila,  327 

Gram,  dog,  152 

Gravity,  11,  18  ff.,  23,  30,  40,  41  ff.,  43, 
49,  63,  69,  75,  92,  93  ff.,  106,  224,  232, 
237 

Grecian  myths,  144, 146,  163-164, 165, 168, 
170,  186,  196,  201,  204,  205,  208,  211, 
213,  219,  221,  224,  228  ff.,  236,  242, 
254-275,  276-296,  297-307,  318,  322, 
342,  357,  359,  363-364,  366,  369,  374, 
383 

Green  Daughter,  335  ff.,  346  ff. 

Greenhouse-roof,  see  Golden  age  and 
Eden-like  conditions,  6,  12,  20  ff.,  91, 
97,  159,  192,  199,  211,  224-225,  233, 
259,  359 

Grendel,  153,  185,  283 

Grizzlies,  282  ff.,  326 

Guachemines,  154,  317 

Gukumatz,  150 

Gyller,  361 

Gypsum  beds,  98,  118 

Hades,  224,  237-238,  291 

Hagene,  234 

Halcyon  days,  192,  377 

Hall  of  Two  Truths,  222,  223,  226,  239,  247 

Halo-boats,  see  Egg,  145,  146,  147,  149, 

151,  170,  175,  176,   182,  203,  207,  249 

ff.,  252  ff.,  263,  273,  278,  288,  289,  314, 

336,  355,  361 
Hanuman,  379 
Hare,  152,  227-228,  231,  234,  273,  280, 

312,  318,  319,  342 
Hannonia,  364 
Hathor,  249 
Hau,  321 

Haugebasse,  341-342 
Havasupais,  328,  330 
Heat  a  requisite  to  an  ice  age,  15,  102, 

112-115 

Heavier-than-air  canopy,  16,  22,  34 
Hebrews,  see  Firmament,   145,   155-173, 

201,  204,  213,  225,  317,  357,  365,  369 
Hector,  233 
Heimdall,  361,  385 
Hel,  369,  371,  382,  385 
Helios,  219,  260  288 
Heliotropism  61 
Hell,  152,  264 
Hera,  255,  261,  271 
Hercules,  146,  147,  153,  163-164, 170,  177, 

178,  185,  211,  213,  270,  275,  276-296, 

327,  361,  369,  375,  378,  382,  383 
Hermes,  282 
Hermione,  153 
Hennond,  369 


Hero  of  the  Plain,  343  ff. 

Hesperides,  144,  242,  285,  289,  290 

Hestia,  305 

Hidery  Indians,  310 

Hindu  myths,  146,  147,  150,  152,  165,  174- 
195,  198,  231,  248-249,  254-255,  257, 
258,  261,  263,  264,  276,  286,  287,  313, 
356,  368,  369,  375-376,  378-379 

Hippolyta,  288 

Hoder,  233,  369,  386 

Hokomata,  328  ff. 

Holger  Danske,  294 

Horses,  steeds,  173,  176,  177,  182,  186, 
187,  204,  211,  219,  228-232,  252,  273  ff., 
291  ff.,  304  ff.,  336,  339,  342,  343  ff., 
352,  354,  361,  374,  384 

Horsemen,  177 

Horns,  220,  221,  225,  226 

Hydra,  178-182,  185,  275,  285  ff.,  289,  356 

Hymir,  368 

Hyperboreans,  265 

Hyperion,  260 

Hypogeic  geology,  7,  75 

Hypsometric  hypothesis,  101  ff . 

Hyrroken,  370 

lapetos,  the  god,  260 

lapetos,  the  satellite,  32 

Iblis,  147 

Icarus,  272-273 

Ice  ages,  see  Glaciation  in  remote  ages, 

14,  15,  43,  48,  50,  78-79,  80  ff.,  94  ff., 

98,  101  ff.,  112  ff.,  124  ff.,  147,  178,  299, 

351,  373,  382,  385 
Ice  recession,  109,  124-142 
Ida,  259,  386 
Idun,  290,  374,  375 
Ilhataina,  327 
Ilus,  257 

Impregnated  water,  53,  63 
Indian  myths,  see  Amerind  myths 
Indra,   153,  174,   175-176,  177,  178,  184, 

185,  249,  256,  335,  354 
Ino,  280 

Inundation  mud,  48-49 
Inverted  world,  224,  237-238 
lolans,  275 
Irin  Mage\  380 
Iroquoi  myths,  149,  309,  328 
Irradiation,  353 
Isfendiyar,  292 
Ishtar,  164,  199,  209,  211,  212,  215,  218, 

249,  285 

Isis,  221,  222,  224-225,  357,  369,  375 
Island,  see  Egg-land. 
Island  of  the  Innocent,  see  Egg-land,  242, 

263 


396 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Isle  of  Ogygia,  see  Egg-land,  170 

Isles  of  the  Blessed,  see  Egg-land,  242, 

247,  250,  304 
Isostasy,  see  Weight  of  ice,  43,  93  ff.,  119, 

120,  121  ff. 

Ivan,  153,  279,  332-356 
Izdubar,  211 
Izanagi,  360 

Jack  of  the  Bean-Stalk,  312 

Jacob's  ladder,  163,  262 

Japanese  myths,  165,  360 

Japetus,  260 

Jasher,  235 

Jaw,  204-205,  313,  337,  355,  375,  385 

Jonah,  378 

Joshua's  long  day,  158,  173,  235 

Jotun,  367 

Jotunheim,  362 

Jove,   153,  177,  223,  228,  231,  261,  275, 

308 

Juggernaut,  356 
Juno,  see  Hera,  147,  233,  261,  271,  272, 

275,  278 
Jupiter,  the  god,  see  Zeus,  209,  229,  255, 

259,  261,  271,  287 
Jupiter's  system,  6,  16,  30,  34,  35,  36-37, 

38,  39,  72,  371,  380 

Ka,  239,  261 

Kaffirs,  168 

Kahit  Kiemila,  323,  324 

Kaltsauna,  326 

Kames,  127,  130 

Karens,  280,  316 

Katkatchila,  321,  322 

Khem,  221 

Khepra,  220 

Khonsu,  221 

Kishma,  368  * 

Kiss  Miklos,  335  ff .,  346  ff . 

Kneph,  221 

Kootenays,  317 

Koshche"i,  153,  335,  338,  340  ff.,  346,  350, 

351 

Krakatoa,  17,  24,  360-361 
Ku-Meru,  187 
Kwasind,  235 

Labyrinth,  271-273 

Ladon,  290 

Lake  filling,  127-128,  130 

Lake  Llion,  267 

Land  bridges,  5-6,  43,  63,  92,  94,  95,  96  ff ., 

99,  134,  135 
Laramide,  59 
Latona,  265,  266,  268,  271 


Lead  Friend,  337-338 

Lenape",  162-163 

Leto,  see  Latona,  271 

Leviathan,  152,  198 

Lexell's  comet,  35 

Lias,  54,  55,  125 

Light  dispensed  with  by  plant-life,  21-22, 

73,  96,    by  animals,  73 
Light  One,  318 

Limitations  of  ice,  107-108,  112-113 
Linguistic  measles,  168-169 
Lion-snake,  154 
Litaolane,  316 
Lithological  record,  50 
Load,  see  Weight  of  ice,  121 
Loess,  46-47,  48-49 
Lohengrin,  252-253 
Loke,  Lok,  Loki,  290,  362,  369,  370,  371, 

372,  373,  374,  384,  385,  386 
Longevity,  162,  233 
Lot,  214 

Lower  Carboniferous,  62 
Lower  Cretaceous,  67 
Lower  Silurian,  51,  59,  61 
Lower  world,  344  ff . 
Lutchi,  323,  326 

Maane,  369 

Machito,  268-269 

Magna  Mater,  see  Mother,  260,  278 

Mammoth,    54,    68,    78,    111,    112,    138, 

371 

Mammoth  age,  47 
Manabozho,  316 
Mandara,  196 

Manes,  Menes,  Menos,  Minyas,  250 
Manitu,  162,  235 

Man's  relics,  see  Archaeology,  132-142 
Manu,  193,  194,  211,  250 
Maoris,  168,  178-181 
Marduk,  197,  202,  203,  204,  205,  206,  207, 

209,  210,  211,  368 
Mars,  34,  38,  39,  209,  288 
Maruts,  177-178 
Mathematical     calculation,     stability    of 

rings,  30-32,  41 
Mani,  280,  313,  314 
Maut,  221 

Maw,  see  Clam  and  Jaw,  233,  260,  316 
Medusa,  351 
Melusina,  352 
Mem  Loimis,  323,  324 
Mentu,  220 
Mercury,  209,  378 
Meru,  Mero,  Merou,  Meropes  187-188,  263, 

264 
Mesozoic,  41,  53,  59,  67,  71,  98 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


397 


Meteoric  falls,  29,  33,  34,  35 

Meteoric  hypothesis,  34,  41 

Methuselah,  162 

Metis,  259 

Mexican  myths,  151,  154,  243,  245,  317- 

318,  357,  381,  383 
Michabo,  318,  327 
Middle  heaven,  148,  289 
Middle  world,  148,  291 
Midgard  Serpent,  148,  152,  326,  328,  357, 

362,  367,  368,  371,  382,  384,  385 
Midgard  world,  362 
Migrations,  43,  49,  63,  96-97,  103  ff.,  110 

8.,  115,  134,  140,  166 
Miklos,  335  ff. 
Mile-deep,  368 
Mimir,  366 

Mimir's  Realm,  363,  366 
Minerva,  261,  262 
Minos,  272  ff. 
Minotaur,  273 

Miocene  system,  68,  81,  84,  85,  90 
Mirko,  343  ff. 
Missing  links,  53,  66  ff . 
Miztecs,  154 
Mjolner,  367 
Mock    suns,   see    Halo-boats,    170,    263, 

356 
Modern  storm,  see  Hydra,  178-182,  261- 

262,  356 
Mogol  bird,  339 
Mohammedan  myths,  196,  251 
Monan,  379-380 
Monstrous  growths,  67-71 
Moon,  canopy  disk,  158,   159,  203,  214- 

215,  227,  287,  306,  360,  369,  372,  373 
Moon,  origin  of,  40-41,  45 
Moongarm,  372 
Morgan  le  Fay,  293-294 
Moses,  172,  216 
Mot,  257 
Mother,  199,  205,  210,  211,  248,  249,  260, 

285,  359,  363,  366 
Mound  Builders,  148,  149,  243  ff. 
Mount  Petee,  17 
Mountains,  151,  158,  163,  171,  187-188, 

194,  196  ff.,  203,  210,  213,  214,  217,  223, 

233,  236  ff.,  247  ff.,  259  ff.,  279,  287, 

289,  304,  312,  316,  331,  342,  343,  345, 

348,  365,  370,  374,  381,  382 
Mundilfare,  369 
Muses,  272 

Muspelheim,  363,  379,  384 
Mutation  theory,  60,  61,  63-64,  71,  89, 

125 
Mystery  of  good  and  evil,  160-161,  162- 

163,  169-170,  172  ff.,  376-378 


Nabu,  203,  209,  217 

Nagalfar,  371 

Nanahuatzin,  318 

Nannar,  215 

Natural  preservation,  64,  68 

Natural  selection,  66 

Navajos,  315 

Nebo,  196 

Nebulae,  34-35 

Nebular  hypothesis,  7-8,  44,  45,  75 

Nekilstluss,  310 

Nemean  lion,  164,  170,  280,  285,  327,  369 

Neolithic  relics,  134,  137,  138,  141 

Nephthys,  225 

Neptune,  see  Poseidon,  153,  287,  288 

Neptune,  the  planet,  38,  39 

Nergal,  209 

New  Zealand  myths,  178-181,  238-239 

Niagara  gorge,  128  ff.,  132,  133 

Nicholas,  336  ff .,  343 

Niflheim,  363 

Night,  183-184,  185,  237-239,  257 

Night,  canopy  darkness,  153,  335 

Nin-gal,  203 

Nin-girsu,  203,  215,  246 

Nin-gish-zidu,  215 

Ninib,  196,  203,  209,  215,  216,  217 

Nin-lil,  203 

Nin-shaka-kuddu,  215 

Nin-shakh,  215 

Noachian  flood,  48,  54,  165,  166,  173,  193, 

211,  214  ff.,  229   308,  377,  379  ff. 
Noah,  161-162,  192,  193,  214,  287,  378 
Norka,  153,  335,  339 
Nox,  257 
Nubi,  227 

Nu-t,  145,  146,  176,  226,  247  ff.,  260,  273 
Nymphs,  189,  259,  274,  375 

Cannes,  255 

Oceanides,  260 

Ocean-river,   146,   188,  200  ff.,  242,  246, 

250,  258,  260,  265,  297  ff.,  362 
Oceanus,  260 

Odin,  264,  359,  361,  365,  366,  373,  385  386 
Odysseus,  170,  280,  293 
(Edipus,  see  Crab,  233  ff.,  287,  374 
Ogygia,  170,  287 
Ojibway  legends,  264,  311,  313 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  56 
Olelbis,  319  ff. 
Olelphanti,  320  ff. 
Olger,  293 
Olympus,  151,  163, 196,  228,  233-234,  254, 

260  ff.,  272,  320 
Ombo,  227 
Omoroka,  204 


898 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Oolite,  58,  125 

Open  zones,  20,  51,  73,  103,  104  ff.,  119 

Oracles,  231-232,  254,  259,  262,  272 

Ordovician,  80 

Orientation,  240  ff. 

Original  sin,  161,  163,  169-170 

Origin  of  satellites,  35-36,  38,  39,  40,  41,  45 

Origin  of  species,  73 

Origin  of  the  Greek  gods,  255 

Orizaba,  151,  383 

Ormuzd,  328 

Orographic  movements,  see  Sympathetic 

earth  movements,  59 
Orpheus,  257 
Orthus,  274,  285 
Osiris,  153,  220,  221,  222,  223,  224-225, 

226,  227,  236,  238,  273,  277,  311,  316, 

318,  369,  375 
Ossa,  163,  260  ff. 

Oxen,  see  Bull,  Cows,  etc.,  270,  289 
Oxen  of  Geryon,  234,  242 
Oxygenation,  69 
Oyster  canopy,  258 

Pakchuso,  323 

Palseocosmic  age,  47,  48 

Paleolithic  relics,  128,  133,  134,  137,  138, 
141,  166 

Paleozoic,  53,  59,  77,  80,  86,  90,  98 

Pallas  Athene,  261   262,  271,  274,  275 

Pani  robbers,  184 

Pan-ku,  268 

Papa,  178-181 

Paradise,  246,  364,  365 

Parjanya,  176 

Parnapistim,  214  ff. 

Parnassus,  272,  287 

Peerless  Beauty,  338  ff.,  346 

Pegasus,  231,  273  ff. 

Pelion,  Mount,  163,  260 

Penelope,  281 

Peneus,  260 

Percival,  252 

Period  of  rotation,  36-38 

Permian,  77,  79,  80,  81,  86,  99,  102,  118, 
119 

Perseus,  185,  277,  282,  292,  311 

Persian  legends,  147,  154,  291  ff.,  356,  369 

Perun,  153,  335 

Peruvian  myths,  148,  245,  266,  314,  31 6- 
317,  357 

Phsedo  myth,  304  ff . 

Phaedrus  myth,  304  ff . 

Phaeton,  219,  228-231,  263,  322,  372 

Phenomena  due  to  remnants  of  vapor- 
belt,  22,  24,  27-29 

Philistines   177,  213,  277 


Phobos,  satellite  of  Mars,  38 
Phoebus,  see  ApoUo,  231,  272,  282 
Phoenician  myths,  163-164,  185,  225,  257, 

276 

Phthah,  221,  250 
Piguerao,  317 

Pillar  of  cloud,  173,  183-184 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  145-146,  163,  169,  177, 

207,  208,  213,  214,  222,  225,  264,  276^ 

302,  360,  382 
Planetesimal  deposits,  39,  44-45,  47,  71, 

75,  361 
Planetesimal  hypothesis,  7-8,  16,  30  ff., 

34,  40 
Pleistocene,  see  Ice  ages,  47,  81,  85,  112, 

116,  120,  124 
Pliocene,  84,  85 
Pluto,  304,  369 
Poharamas,  322 
Pohila,  322 

Poisoned  air,  see  Carbon  dioxide  in  at- 
mosphere, 267,  385 
Pokaila,  281,  323 
Politicus  myth,  299  ff. 
Polydectes,  277 

Polynesian  myths,  165,  178-181,  313,  314 
Pontus,  258 

Poseidon,  see  Neptune,  153,  254,  288,  376 
Post-Cretaceous,  59 
Post-Pliocene,  6,  71,  82 
Post-Tertiary,  85 
Precession  of  the  equinoxes,  93,  99,  101, 

115-116,  124 

Precipitation,  103-104,  119 
Pricni,  177 

Prince  of  Tyre,  171-172 
Prometheus,  271,  285,  300,  326 
Psyche,  253 
Ptah,  248,  250 
Ptolemy's  rings,  169,  256 
Pueblos,  315 
Pu-keh-eh,  328-330 
Punctuation  of  geological  time,  3,  31,  35, 

49-51,  52,  59-60 
Pururavas,  187,  253 
Pyramids,     see    Shadow-mountain,     158, 

173,  196,  236,  239  ff.,  242  ff.,  376 
Pythias,  258,  313 
Python,  262,  272 

Quaternary  period,  81,  95,  99,  120,  131 
Quetzalcoatl,  150,  151,  192,  243,  281,  383 
Quiches,  150,  190  ff.,  222,  270,  309,  319 
Quiescent  state  of  nature,  60,  64,  66 

Ra,  220,  227,  248,  250,  273,  276,  313,  378, 
379 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Ragnarok,  124,  322,  351,  358-386 

Rainbow,  173,  385 

Raised  beaches,  92-93 

Rakshaas,  276,  378 

Rama,  263-264,  276,  286,  313,  378,  379 

Ramman,  217,  264 

Rangi,  178-181 

Rapid  suns,  151,  152,  171,  182,  186,  211, 

230,  231,  274,  304  ff.,  319,  372 
Ratri,  183 

Ravana,  276,  286,  290,  378,  379 
Raven,  261,  317,  350 
Rayless  one,  154,  317 
Recent  submergence,  see  Noachian  flood 
Red  beds,  47,  119 
Reindeer  age,  47,  77,  137 
Remnants  of  the  zonal  belt,  22-23,  27-29, 

32,  124 

Reptilian  age,  41,  73 

Retrograde  motion,  see  Crab,  Slow-foot, 
Swollen-foot,  and  GEdipus,  286,  300-301 
Retrograde  satellites,  38 
Rhea,  258  ff. 
Rigidity  of  earth,  42 
Ringhorn,  370,  371 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  293 
Ritual,  see  Book  of  the  Dead,  223-224, 

237-238,  247 
Roc,  70,  291 
Rock-flowage,     see     Sympathetic     earth 

movements,  42 
Roland,  283,  291  ff. 
Roof  of  heaven,  305 
Rubble-drift,  46,  165 
Rupture  of  the  canopy,  12,  13,  16,  23-24, 

97-98 
Russian  tales,  153,  168,  279-280,  332-357, 

370 
Rustam,  234,  291  ff. 

Saint  George,  153,  185,  186,  328,  337,  356 

Samson,  163-164,  177,  213,  313,  378 

Sani,  147 

Sanskrit,  168,  175 

Sar,  237 

Sarama,  184 

Sas,  282  ff . 

Saturn,  39,  209 

Saturn's  ring  system, 4,  6-7,  8, 16,  29,  30,  31 

ff.,  33,  34,  35,  37,  72,  147,  158-159,  232 
Savitri,  182,  186,  187,  230 
Saxon  legends,  153 
Scandinavian  myths,  152,  177,  196,  205, 

226,  250,  256,  264,  290,  292,  313,  322, 

341,  358-386 
Scorpion-men,  213  ff. 
Scripture  texts,  173 


Scylla,  285 

Seasons,  alternating,  50-51,  97-98,   103, 

154 

Seb,  see  Set,  145,  153,  227,  247,  369,  384 
Sebastian  of  Portugal,  294 
Secondary  cloud-system,  7,  16,  19  ff.,  23- 
24,  30  ff.,  37,  103  ff.,  145-146,  157,  202- 
204,  260-261,  360  ff. 
Sediments,  44,  61,  127,  369 
Sedit,  326 

Selective  absorption,  19-22,  53,  72 
Selene,  260 

Serpent,  19-20,  24,  141-142,  143,  145-154, 
160,  162,  163,  169,  172,  173,  175,  176, 
177,  185,  188-189,  195-196,  198,  204- 
207,  211,  213,  225,  226,  237,  248,  262- 
264,  267,  272,  274,  277,  279,  284,  289- 
291,  298,  326,  328,  332  ff.,  338,  339,  350, 
351,  353  ff.,  365,  367,  368,  370,  371,  376, 
378,  382 

Set,  221,  225-227,  247,  369,  384 
Seven,  significance  of,  85,  212,  233,  246, 

271 
Shadow-mountain,  see  Pyramid,  158,  159, 

173,  236-239,  376 
Shamash,  145,  164,  196,  203,  213,  214,  217, 

278,  279 
Sharru,  217 

Shifting  of  the  waters,  40-43,  54 
Shiner,  144,  150,  158,  173,  186,  187,  215, 
227,  231,  235,  250,  278,  316,  326,  328, 
349,  359,  360,  361,  366  368 
Ships,  203,  370-371 
Shoshone  Indians,  286 
Shrinkage  hypothesis,  11 
Shu,  220 

Siegfried,  234,  292,  383 
Sif,  372 

Signs  of  the  zodiac,  210 
Sigurd,  185,  292 
Silfrintop,  361 
Silurian,  49,  51,  52,  86 
Silver  age,  307 
Silver  bridge,  336,  343 
Silver  ring,  339 
Simultaneous  appearance,  see  Suddenness, 

60  ff. 

Sin,  196,  203,  214,  215 
Sippara,  144 
Siriwit,  320 
Sita,  286,  378,  379 
Siva,  250,  368,  369 
Skeidbrimer,  361 

Skeletons  not  adapted  to  environment,  68 
Skidblader,  371 
Sleipnir,  361,  369 
Slow-foot,  see  CEdipus,  233-234,  374 


400 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Smoking  mirror,  150 

Sol,  228,  288,  369 

Solar  climate,  50-51,  97-98,  103 

South  African  myths,  310 

Spectra,  22,  37,  63,  72,  232 

Sphinx,  213,  233,  236,  285 

Spindle  of  Necessity,  298  ff. 

Spiral  nebula,  34 

Stag,  287-288 

Star-eyes,  see  Golden  apples,  170,  323 

Stone  age,  47,  134,  138,  139 

Stratagraphic  record,  49-50 

Streams,  sky,  188-189,  200-202,  297-298, 

366-367,  369 
Stymphalides  birds,  287 
Styx,  264,  298 
Submergence,  recent,  see  Noachian  Flood, 

43,  48,  93,  99,  165,  166 
Suddenness  in  the  appearance  of  species, 

59,  60  ff.,  65,  157,  165-166 
Suddenness  of  extinction,  48,  52,  54  ff., 

67,  111-112,  119,  166 
Su-Meru,  187 
Supchit,  284 
Surt,  363,  369,  384 
Surtur,  385 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  63-64,  67 
Surya,  187 
Susa-noO,  360 
Sutekh,  227 
Sutunut,  323 
"Swift,  "231,  321 
Swollen-foot,  see  (Edipus,  233  ff. 
Sympathetic  earth  movements,  42,  59,  63, 

75,  122-123,  152,  287,  299,  381-382,  384 
Sympathetic  glaciation,  113,  114,  118 
Symplegades,  280 
Symposium  myths,  306  ff. 
Synthetical  work,  155 

Tamheur,  317 

Tammuz,  169,  212,  322,  370 

Tane-mahuta,  179-181 

Tangaroa,  180 

Tannhauser,  294 

Tara,  277 

Tartarian  pall,  258 

Tartarus,  224,  237,  260,  298 

Ta-vi,  227 

Ta-wats,  227-228,  313 

Tawhiri-ma-tea,  178-181 

Temperature,  narrowness  of  range,  11,  73- 

74,  77 

Temple,  sky,  164,  272 
Temples,  Babylonian,  45-46 
Tertiary,  53,  62,  67,  81,  83,  84,  89,  90,  91, 

95-96 


Teta,  247 

Texts,  Scripture,  173 

Tezcatlipoca,  150,  151,  267 

Tezpi,  192 

Thebes,  233,  307 

Themis,  271 

Theogony,  151,  326,  359 

Theoktony,  124,  223,  308,  359 

Theseus,  273,  282,  295 

Thjasse,  290,  374 

Thlinkeets,  258,  269,  311 

Thor,  177,  328,  335,  354,  362,  366,  367, 

368,  370,  385,  386 
Thoth,  221 
Thrym,  367 
Thunderer,  177,  217,  219,  226,  228,  231, 

261,  262,  327,  328,  350,  362,  366,  368, 

375,  381,  385 

Tiamat,  204,  205,  206,  207,  210,  211,  368 
Tidal  retardation,  36,  39,  40  ff .,  63 
Tiger-snake,  154 
Tilikus,  322 
Timadonar,  153 
Timseus  myth,  301  ff. 
Time-clock,  geological,  11,  35,  39,  41,  49 

ff.,  52,  382 

Titans,  167,  250,  259  ff.,  271,  367 
Titchelis,  322 
Tochopa,  328  ff. 
Toltec  myths,  150,  151,  382 
Treasures  of  snow,  173 
Tree,  see  World  tree,  and  Ygdrasil,  163, 

225,  226,  255,  290,  364-365,  375  ff.,  378 
Triassic,  41 
Trolls,  341,  342 
Tsawadi  Kamshupa,  327 
Tubal-Cain,  378 
Tulchuherris,  281  ff. 
Turn,  220 

Tu-ma-tauenga,  178,  180 
Turtle,  149,  257 
Twa  Wya,  316 
Twilight,   see  Ragnarok,   322,   359,   373, 

374,  384 

Two  Truths,  see  Hall  of,  222  ff.,  226 
Typhon,  152,  153,  224-225,  226,  227,  232, 

236,  247,  274,  285,  375 
Tyr,  371,  372,  386 
Tyre,  Prince  of,  171-172,  173 

Ukk's  fiery  shirt,  280 

Underground  kingdom,  332 

Underworld,  201,  224,  237-239,  259 

Undine,  253 

Unglaciated  regions,  112-113 

Upper  Cretaceous,  84 

Upper  Silurian   59,  61 


INDEX   OF  SUBJECTS 


401 


Uranus,  the  god,  255,  258,  260 

Uranus,  the  planet,  38,  39 

Urd,  363 

Uru,  278 

Urvasi,  253 

Usuinya  Bird,  339,  351 

Ute,  227-228 

Utgard-Loki,  see  Loke,  362 

Vagin,  186,  230 

Val,  see  Vritra,  185 

Valhalla,  see  Walhalla,  383,  384 

Vali,  369 

Valkyries,  383 

Vanir,  363 

Vanirheim,  363 

Varuna,  144,  174,  175,  176,  177,  182,  188, 

249,  255,  256,  375 
Vassilissa,  351 
Vasuki,  195 

Vault  of  heaven,  144,  174 
Venus,  the  goddess,  261,  294 
Venus,  the  planet,  34,  35,  209 
Vertodub,  348 
Vertogor,  348 
Vidar,  385,  386 
Vishnu,  188-189,  193-195,  211,  247,  287, 

368 

Voice  of  waters,  173 
Volcanic  action,  sympathetic,  54,  63,  119 

ff.,  122  ff.,  166 
Volcanic  ejections,  16,  17  ff.,  22  24  ff .,  29, 

33,  34 

Vritra,  153,  177,  185 
Vulcan,  234,  271,  378 

Waida  Werris,  324,  372 

Wakpohas,  323 

Walhalla,  370,  383,  384 

Wallapais,  330 

Walskit,  327 

Warlock,  342 

Waters  of  Life  and  Death,  279 

Waves  of  translation,  42,  47-48 


Weight  of  atmosphere,  53,  63,  69,  122-123 

Weight  of  ice,  43,  93  ff.,  119,  120  ff.,  165 

Wheels,  171,  173,  211,  249,  263 

White  One,  149,  151,  318,  319 

White  World,  332 

Wima  Loimis,  327 

Winged  sun,  151,  152,  171,  174,  182,  186, 

215,  219-220,  230,  231,  274,  304  ff.,  319, 

372 

Wintu,  285,  319  ff.,  327 
Wisdom,  see  Oracles,  and  Mystery  of  good 

and  evil,  262 
Witch-snake,  213,  342,  344-345,  346,  348 

ff.,  383 

Withdrawal  of  ice,  125  ff. 
Wokwuk,  324 
World-roof,  147,  315,  352 
World-tree,   see  Ygdrasil,    146,   226,  255, 

264,  289,  348,  364-365,  376,  378,  384, 

385 
Wyandots,  312,  313 

Xecotcovach,  309 

Yama  myths,  285 

Yama's  realm,  182,  187,  250 

Yana  myths,  326-327 

Yehl,  258,  269,  311 

Yelena  the  Wise,  332  ff.,  349 

Ygdrasil  see  World-tree,    153,   226,   264, 

281,  363,  364,  367,  376 
Ymer,  256-257,  264 
Yonot,  322 
Yudo,  351,  356 

Zas,  280-281 

Zeus,  see  Dyaus  and  Jupiter,  175,  235, 
250,  254-255,  259,  260,  265,  271,  280, 
289,  300,  301,  304,  307,  318,  326,  364, 
371 

Zikkurats,  196  ff.,  245  ff. 

Zm^i  Goruinuich,  351 

Zohak,  147 

Zoroaster,  141,  142 

Zulus,  316 


J 


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